SSFDA Rejects Kiir’s “Ad-Hoc Peace Committee” as a Deceptive Power Grab

PRESS RELEASE

Date: 4 June 2025

Location: South Sudan / Geneva

SSFDA Rejects Kiir’s “Ad-Hoc Peace Committee” as a Deceptive Power Grab

No Legitimacy, No Mandate, No Peace

The South Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SSFDA) strongly condemns the 31-member “High-Level Ad-Hoc Committee” recently reconstituted by President Salva Kiir under Republican Order No. 17/2025, which purports to oversee the implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement (R-ARCSS).

This unilateral move is a fraudulent exercise in authoritarian theatre. It is designed not to deliver peace, but to manipulate international opinion, marginalize genuine opposition, and whitewash ongoing repression.

Despite its title, this committee:

1. Excludes legitimate opposition figures,
   

2. Includes disavowed, co-opted individuals falsely presented as SPLM-IO members,
   

3. Ignores the current detention of peace signatories, including H.E. Dr. Riek Machar and Hon. Puot Kang Chol.
   

A Collapsed Peace Process

President Kiir’s government has:

1. Violated Chapter II of the R-ARCSS by refusing transitional security arrangements,
   

2. Shut down dissent through arrests and threats,
   

3. Ignored the National Transitional Committee (NTC) and now creates overlapping, non-consensual bodies,
   

4. Attempted to rig the 2026 elections by controlling electoral structures through puppet appointees.
   

This is not implementation. It is institutional sabotage.

SSFDA’s Position

The SSFDA reaffirms:

1. The R-ARCSS has been rendered void by Kiir’s bad-faith actions.
   

2. No peace process is legitimate while opposition leaders are in jail.
   

3. No appointee who participates in this false committee represents the will of the South Sudanese people.
   

4. No credible elections can occur under a regime that governs by deceit, division, and coercion.
   

Call to Action

We urge:

1. The Troika, African Union, IGAD, and the UN to immediately withhold all recognition and cooperation with this Ad-Hoc Committee.
   

2. A new international framework for dialogue — outside the failed structures of R-ARCSS — that includes all legitimate stakeholders and places justice, constitutional reform, and free elections at its core.
   

3. Immediate release of all detained opposition leaders, cessation of politically motivated arrests, and restoration of political freedoms.
   

“This is not peace. It is political theatre backed by fear and bribes. South Sudan deserves a real transition, not a scripted betrayal.”

— Samuel Mut Gai, Chairman of SSFDA