South Sudan treason charges dropped

Pagan Amum was once a staunch ally of the president

South Sudan is withdrawing the case against four top politicians accused of treason that triggered the civil war, the justice minister has said.

The four, who include a former leader of the governing SPLM party, denied plotting a coup and also denied any links to the ongoing fighting.

Their release had been a key demand of the rebels.

Some one million people have been forced from their homes since fighting broke out in December 2013.

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Analysis

James Copnall South Sudan analyst

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The four men have always denied any role in the violence that broke out in Juba in mid-December, although some of them had been particularly vocal critics of President Salva Kiir.

Many in South Sudan and the region believed they should not have been on trial at all. The regional body Igad and the US led the calls for the men to be released, almost from the moment they were arrested in December.

The trial had proved problematic for the prosecution, notably when a key prosecution witness said he did not see any evidence linking the four to the alleged coup attempt.

The timing of this announcement - hours after the UN threatened to impose sanctions on those blocking peace in South Sudan - is surely significant.

Dropping charges for the "Juba Four" looks like a counterweight to President Kiir's other major recent decision - replacing his army chief of staff with a man seen as a hardliner.

Justice Minister Paulino Wanawilla said that the case was being dropped in the interest of peace and reconciliation. He said that the four would probably be released by Friday.

Separately on Thursday, the UN Security Council threatened sanctions against those responsible for continued deadly violence in South Sudan.

In a strongly worded statement, council members expressed "horror and anger" over the mass killings of hundreds of civilians in the town of Bentiu, capital of the oil-rich Unity State, last week.

The charges against the four politicians carried the maximum sentence of death and related to an alleged coup attempt on 15 December.

South Sudan analyst James Copnall says this is a very significant step, because the trial was seen as a stumbling block to the peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

In addition to former Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) secretary general Pagan Amum, ex-National Security Minister Oyai Deng Ajak was cleared, as were former Defence Minister Majak D'Agoot and former ambassador to the US Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth.

In addition to the treason charge, they were accused of inciting the army and fuelling an insurgency in South Sudan, the world's newest state which became independent in 2011.

Earlier on Thursday, South Sudan President Salva Kiir sacked the head of the army following recent rebel advances. No reason was given for the dismissal of Gen James Hoth Mai.

Conflict first broke out in the capital, Juba, between troops loyal to Mr Kiir and those allied with his sacked deputy, Riek Machar.

It later spread to other parts of South Sudan, with numerous reports of ethnic killings.

Many residents of Bentiu have fled the oil town since the rebels took over

The UN says civilians were attacked in a church, hospital and an abandoned World Food Programme office

Eleven ex-officials were arrested in December, but seven of them were later released.

The two sides signed a ceasefire agreement on 23 January, but sporadic fighting has continued.

The latest move comes amid worsening violence in South Sudan, with both sides implicated in atrocities and war crimes.

Last week, the United Nations accused the rebels of massacring hundreds of civilians who sought refuge in a church, mosque and hospital, after capturing Bentiu.

The rebels, however, blame the retreating government forces for the killings.

The UN Security Council expressed on Thursday its "readiness to consider appropriate measures against those responsible", which could mean sanctions.

It also said it was gravely concerned by the growing humanitarian crisis in a UN camp in Bentiu, where more than 23,000 people are seeking shelter.

Correspondents say the Bentiu killings are among the most shocking since the conflict began.

Fighting erupted in the South Sudan capital, Juba, in mid-December. It followed a political power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his ex-deputy Riek Machar. The squabble has taken on an ethnic dimension as politicians' political bases are often ethnic.

Sudan's arid north is mainly home to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in South Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own languages and traditional beliefs, alongside Christianity and Islam.

Both Sudan and the South are reliant on oil revenue, which accounts for 98% of South Sudan's budget. They have fiercely disagreed over how to divide the oil wealth of the former united state - at one time production was shutdown for more than a year. Some 75% of the oil lies in the South but all the pipelines run north.

The two Sudans are very different geographically. The great divide is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. South Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

After gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan is the world's newest country - and one of its poorest. Figures from 2010 show some 69% of households now have access to clean water - up from 48% in 2006. However, just 2% of households have water on the premises.

Just 29% of children attend primary school in South Sudan - however, this is also an improvement on the 16% recorded in 2006. About 32% of primary-age boys attend, while just 25% of girls do. Overall, 64% of children who begin primary school reach the last grade.

Almost 28% of children under the age of five in South Sudan are moderately or severely underweight. This compares with the 33% recorded in 2006. Unity state has the highest proportion of children suffering malnourishment (46%), while Central Equatoria has the lowest (17%).

References

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