Riek Machar denies ordering Nasir attack
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Radio Tamazuj
Riek Machar denies ordering Tor Gille Thoan, head of the White Army, to attack the Nasir garrison in March 2025. At his trial, the former South Sudanese vice-president disputed allegations attributed to Benjamin Bol Mel, according to Radio Tamazuj.
Riek Machar, former first vice-president of South Sudan, denied on Wednesday ordering Tor Gille Thoan, head of the White Army, to attack the government garrison in Nasir in March 2025. He testified at the 125th hearing of his trial, Radio Tamazuj reports.
Machar disputed remarks he attributed to Benjamin Bol Mel, a former vice-president, according to which he had asked Thoan to act after learning that barges carrying government soldiers could not reach Nasir. He said the boats were carrying reinforcements for the Wec-Yar-Adiu garrison and had not been attacked.
The former vice-president said he had asked the commissioners of Nasir and Ulang, along with local leaders and youth officials, to have young people return to their villages on 1 March 2025. According to his testimony, the two commissioners confirmed to him the following day that they had left Nasir and Ulang.
Machar also said he had proposed that General Paul Nang Majok, then head of South Sudan’s armed forces, hire six large boats to transport soldiers and equipment after gunboats were stranded at Malual. Majok had reportedly agreed to pay $60,000, but the mission was later cancelled without Machar being informed. He also rejected the claim that he had been asked to deploy opposition forces to separate the government army from young people in Nasir, referring instead to a deployment during clashes in February 2024.
