Blow as Warrap State SPLM-IO officials close offices, defect
By Emmanuel Mandella
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) has suffered a major setback after top officials and 2,338 members in Warrap State resigned from the party and closed all SPLM-IO offices in the state.
In an official statement released on Saturday and obtained by The City Review, Rt. Hon. Kuec Deng Mayar, the Speaker of Warrap State Transitional Legislative Assembly and former SPLM-IO Chairperson for the state cited internal power struggles, leadership abandonment and a lack of credible national leadership as the key reasons for their dramatic departure.
“The SPLM-IO has lost clear direction. The leadership operates in exile, detached from the reality on the ground. We can no longer serve a party that has abandoned its members,” declared Hon. Kuec Deng Mayar.
The resignation effectively shut all SPLM-IO offices across Warrap State at the State, County, Payam, and Boma levels, signaling one of the largest political defections in the movement’s history.
This mass defection comes amid growing fractures within the SPLM-IO at the national level, where two parallel leaderships have emerged, with one loyal to First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar, who is currently under house arrest awaiting trial, and another backing Hon. Stephen Par Kuol, the Minister of Peace Building, who declared himself interim leader.
In a similar incident highlighting the growing discontent, unknown individuals recently cut down the SPLM-IO flag at their Secretariat in Yambio, Western Equatoria State, following the controversial removal of former Governor Alfred Futuyo Karaba. Though no group claimed responsibility, the act symbolized the deepening crisis within the movement’s grassroots structures.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a local political observer warned that the SPLM-IO’s external threats, internal wrangles and widespread defections could cripple the party ahead of the country’s elections scheduled for 2026.
“The SPLM-IO is facing an existential crisis. With key army generals and political actors switching allegiance to the ruling SPLM, and the leadership sharply divided, their chances of presenting a united front at the elections are extremely slim,” the analyst observed.
The defections across the country not only weaken SPLM-IO’s political bargaining power but also raise concerns around the party’s state in the countdown to the elections.
Meanwhile, the Warrap officials said a formal declaration of their new political allegiance will be made in the coming days, further stirring speculation about a possible wave of SPLM-IO figures migrating to the ruling party, a different faction or forming a new political force.
As South Sudan edges closer to elections, the political party interplays and face-off could shape or shift the ground significantly.
