South Sudan has started holding a trial for First Vice President Riek Machar, who has been sacked by his decades-long rival, President Salva Kiir, and charged with murder, treason and crimes against humanity in relation to rebellion and an attack by a militia linked with ethnic tensions.

Machar and seven others who have been charged alongside him, including Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol, were seen sitting inside a barred cage in the court on Monday during a live broadcast on national television.

Machar has been held in house arrest at his residence in the capital, Juba, for months following investigations by the government of his allies.

Earlier this month, a decree read on state radio said Kiir suspended the first vice president due to charges stemming from his alleged involvement in attacks by the White Army against federal forces in March.

The White Army, a loose band of armed youths, attacked a military base in Nasir, northeastern South Sudan, and killed more than 250 soldiers on Machar’s orders, according to the government.

Edmund Yakani, executive director of South Sudan activist group Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, told local media that the trial must be transparent and fair to build up trust in the judicial system.

He urged both leaders and their parties to “adhere to the principle of resolving political misunderstanding through dialogue” rather than violence, which would benefit no one.

Machar’s party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-in Opposition (SPLM/IO), has called the charges “fabricated” and said its members were arrested illegally. Machar’s lawyer on Monday said “an incompetent court” that lacks jurisdiction is judging him.

Fears of a return to ruinous civil war
After the vice president’s arrest, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) called on all parties to exercise restraint and warned that they risked losing the “hard-won gains of the past seven years” and returning to a state of civil war.

In 2013, two years after the country gained independence from Sudan following decades of war, oil-producing South Sudan descended into a civil war.

The devastating conflict, which scarred the country and left some 400,000 people killed, pitted Kiir and his allies from the ethnic Dinka group against Machar, who is from the Nuer, the second-largest ethnic group in South Sudan.

More than four million people, or about one-third of the population, were displaced from their homes before a 2018 peace deal saw the pair form a “national unity” government.

But they never fully saw eye-to-eye, leaving the country in a state of limbo.

Both leaders held on to their armed factions that were never fully integrated and unified despite agreements, while reforms were delayed, and presidential elections were repeatedly postponed.

Armed clashes have erupted in several parts of the country over the past months, with both sides accusing each other of breaking ceasefire agreements.

Authorities in South Sudan are, in the meantime, plundering billions of dollars in public funds as the impoverished country also deals with a deepening food crisis, according to the UN.

“The country has been captured by a predatory elite that has institutionalised the systematic looting of the nation’s wealth for private gain,” the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said last week.

South Sudan’s First Vice President Machar faces charges of treason and other serious crimes, local justice authorities said, as fears grow that the east African country could edge toward a return to civil war.

The United Nations body for human rights in South Sudan has called the government’s charges of treason against opposition leader Riek Machar “reckless.”

South Sudan’s First Vice President Machar faces charges of treason and other serious crimes, local justice authorities said Thursday, as fears grow that the east African country could edge toward a return to civil war.

Machar has been under house arrest since March after the transitional government he is a part of accused him of subversive activities against President Salva Kiir, who said Thursday that he was suspending Machar as his deputy because of the criminal allegations.

Pro-government troops have been fighting militias and other armed groups that they say are loyal to Machar, who has served as his country’s No. 2 under the terms of a delicate peace deal signed in 2018.

That agreement has not been fully implemented, with presidential elections repeatedly postponed.

In addition to treason, Machar and seven others face charges of murder, conspiracy, terrorism, destruction of public property and military assets and crimes against humanity.

The charges stem from a violent incident in March when a militia known as the White Army overran a garrison of government troops, killing its commanding officer and others. The justice ministry said in a statement Thursday that the attack in Nasir, Upper Nile state was influenced by Machar and others via ”coordinated military and political structures.”

Bringing criminal charges against Machar is likely to further destabilize South Sudan, whose government faces pressure from regional leaders to reach a political agreement that prevents a return to full-blown war.

It was not immediately clear when Machar would be presented in a courtroom. His precise whereabouts in South Sudan are unknown, and his political supporters have long called for his freedom.

If there is anyone in the world that is not happy or feeling serious criticism, it has to be nobody except, Kemi Badenoch, UK business secretary and Conservative Party leader.

The British politician with Nigerian heritage has been consistently getting serious backslash from different media users by Nigerians and some British citizens over her reckless statement against immigrants in the United Kingdom.

Recently, the British electorate has decided to reject Kemi Badenoch, marking a significant moment in the political landscape.

Critics argue that her outspoken remarks betray a certain level of disregard for her Nigerian roots, suggesting that she is more aligned with her identity as a British citizen than with her heritage.

This perception has been fueled by her rhetoric, which some interpret as prioritizing British values and culture over the traditions and issues of her ancestral country.

As a result, a segment of the public and political observers feel that Badenoch’s actions and statements may contribute to a narrative of disavowal of her Nigerian background in favor of assimilation into her adopted home, the United Kingdom. This tension highlights the complexities faced by individuals straddling multiple identities and the scrutiny they encounter in the political arena.

Responding to media critics, she declared that she no longer identifies as Nigerian and has not held a Nigerian passport for over 20 years.

Badenoch, who was born in London and raised in Lagos, made the statement while speaking on a podcast.

She said that while she knows Nigeria well and has family ties there, she no longer feels a sense of belonging to the country.

Her words: “I have not renewed my Nigerian passport, I think, not since the early 2000s,” she said. “I don’t identify with it anymore. Most of my life has been in the UK and I’ve just never felt the need to.

“The Conservative Party is very much part of my family, my extended family, I call it.

“I’m Nigerian through ancestry, by birth despite not being born there because of my parents, but by identity I’m not really.

“I know the country very well, I have a lot of family there… but home is where my now family is.”