South Sudan's multiparty unity government has been shaken by the arrest of leaders from the main opposition party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM IO), which condemned the arrest of Petroleum Minister Puot Kang in the early hours of Wednesday.

"The SPLM IO condemned this systematic targeting of its leading members, both in politics and in the military, and calls for their immediate release," Pal Mai Deng, the party's spokesperson and chairperson of the SPLM IO's National Committee for Information and Communication, said in a statement sent to Anadolu.

He stated that the arrest of the petroleum minister occurred after their senior army general was detained on Tuesday afternoon.

After four years of armed conflict between 2013 and 2016, all parties in the country agreed to form a unity government in 2018.

'Arbitrary arrest'

South Sudan formed the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity, or unity government, on February 22, 2020, as part of an agreement signed by all parties on September 12, 2018, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

“This morning, we received information regarding the arbitrary arrest of the Minister of Petroleum, Hon. Puot Kang Chol, who was taken from his residence at 2am by security personnel suspected to be from the National Security Service. This occurred less than 24 hours after the arrest and detention of SPLM/SPLA IO Acting Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Defence Forces of SSPDF, General Gabriel Doup Lam,” Deng said in the statement.

He urged the agreement's guarantors and partners to intervene to prevent the country from experiencing full-scale violence again.

He also stated: “We are also gravely concerned about the heavy deployment of SSPDF around the residence of H.E. Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon, the First Vice President and Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLM/A (IO).

Confidence and trust

“These actions erode confidence and trust among the parties and jeopardise efforts to de-escalate the current violence that erupted in Nasir County of Upper Nile State.”

No reason was given by the government for the arrests, which came after an armed group allied to Machar overran an army base in the country’s Upper Nile state.

Later, Information Minister Micheal Makuei Lueth confirmed the arrests of the petroleum minister and a senior army general, claiming they were detained in violation of the law.

However, Lueth did not provide any additional information about the arrest of officials from the main opposition party.