When the cat is away, the rats don’t just play they butcher each other, with Dr. Riek Machar effectively neutralized and detained under house arrest in Juba, the SPLM-IO has devolved from a political movement into a ruthless criminal syndicate. Left without a master, two power hungry vultures Oyet Nathaniel and Regina Kaba are burning down what is left of Nuerland and Equatoria just to see who gets to sit on top of the ashes, their senseless greed has unleashed total chaos, butchering thousands of civilians, displacing entire communities, and tearing the opposition to pieces.
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Team Oyet Nathaniel Pierino: Basking in his title as First Deputy Speaker, Oyet grabbed the microphone in Juba and declared himself the kingpin. Operating with shameless arrogance, he began firing loyalists, appointing his own sycophants, and seizing control of key lucrative trade routes in Equatoria and Upper Nile.
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Team Regina Kaba: Refusing to play second fiddle, Party Secretary General Regina Kaba dug in her heels, backed by entrenched party elites and military intelligence thugs, she declared war on Oyetโs authority. She hit back with invalid suspensions, creating a parallel command structure that split the armed forces right down the middle.
Instead of fighting for their jailed leader or their suffering constituents, these two factions turned their guns on each other in a desperate bid to collect bribes, control check-points, and secure administrative loot.
The Adok Massacre: Pure Barbarism at the Port
If you want to see the sheer depravity of this conflict, look no further than the Adok Incident in Leer County. Adok Port wasn’t a battlefield; it was a lifeline for starving civilians. It was the only place left where food, medicine, and trade flowed along the Nile, Oyet and Regina turned it into a slaughterhouse.
The Brutal Reality on the Ground:
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Artillery on Civilians: Troops loyal to Oyetโs appointed cronies clashed with Reginaโs commanders using heavy weaponry in densely populated market areas. They fired directly into residential settlements and trading hubs.
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Adok Port Reduced to Ashes: The port was completely torched. Stores were looted, cargo boats were destroyed, and the market was leveled. They didn’t just kill rival soldiers; they deliberately destroyed the food supply of an entire region.
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Floating Corpses in the Nile: Dozens of young soldiers and hundreds of helpless civilians caught in the crossfire were driven into the swamps and the River Nile. Defeated fighters and drowning women and children choked the riverways their bodies left to rot in the sun.
Equatoria and Nuerland Bleed While Juba Watches
The carnage didn’t stop at Adok. Across Unity State, Jonglei, and parts of Central and Eastern Equatoria, command structures have completely collapsed into warlordism.
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In Nuerland, brother is killing brother over which corrupt politician in Juba gets to sign their paychecks.
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In Equatoria, Oyet’s faction uses armed forces to extort tax points, terrorize local populations, and trigger ethnic friction under the guise of “party discipline.”
The Unvarnished Bottom Line
Oyet Nathaniel and Regina Kaba are sacrificing thousands of South Sudanese lives on the altar of their own egos. While they sip tea and hold press conferences in Juba issuing worthless suspension letters, civilians in Adok, Leer, and Equatoria are being blown to pieces and drowned in rivers.
Without Dr. Riek Machar to control his subordinates, the SPLM-IO has proven it is entirely incapable of leadership it is merely a machine that turns political greed into civilian corpses.
