JUBA – The National Salvation Front (NAS) has condemned the treason and murder charges filed against Riek Machar and seven senior SPLM-IO officials, calling them “ethnic persecution disguised as justice.” 

Earlier this week, South Sudan’s Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs announced that Machar and his co-accused would face trial over the March 2025 incident in Nasir, following months of investigation.

Authorities allege that the SPLM-IO chairman, who has been suspended as First Vice President, coordinated with the White Army in an attack that killed Lt. Gen. David Majur Dak and his bodyguards.

NAS, which remains outside the Revitalized Peace Agreement, strongly rejected the accusations in a statement issued by Daniel Lee, the NAS Commissioner of Information, Mass Communications, and Cultural Affairs, on Saturday. 

“The National Salvation Front categorically rejects the Ministry of Justice’s politically motivated charges against Dr. Riek Machar Teny and a list of Nuer leaders accused of masterminding the Nasir incident of March 3, 2025,” the statement read.

The group argued that the move reflects neither impartial justice nor genuine concern for victims. “It is a continuation of the ethnic engineering policy that has defined the Juba regime since 2013, where justice is manipulated to criminalise entire South Sudanese communities—particularly the Nuer in this instance—while eliminating their political leadership,” NAS charged.

The statement noted that all eight accused are Nuer, which, according to NAS, reinforces “a well-documented pattern of scapegoating one ethnic group while shielding pro-regime militias and commanders who committed mass atrocities in Juba, Bor, Malakal, and Wau.” 

NAS further argued that if the government respected justice, it would begin by holding accountable those behind the 2013 killings, the July 2016 Terrain Hotel attack, and other atrocities. Instead, the group said, the regime selectively pursues cases that brand Nuer leaders as “terrorists” while granting immunity to regime-backed forces.

The opposition movement also accused the government of undermining due process. “The regime boasts of due process, yet the facts betray them. Eighty-three suspects were interrogated, seventy-six released for lack of evidence. This alone shows the investigation lacked credibility,” the statement said.

It added that prosecutors presented “no clear command responsibility linking Dr. Machar to the White Army, a community defence force known for acting independently.”

According to NAS, the charges of murder, treason, terrorism, and crimes against humanity are designed “not for legal precision but to create maximum political stigma.”

The group also questioned the independence of the judiciary, stating that public statements from the Ministry of Justice had already declared Machar guilty, thereby undermining the constitutional presumption of innocence. Sudan Post 

Biruk Mekonnen, Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, describes a celebration not only of engineering, but of solidarity

THE Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was never just a national project. From the start, it was imagined as a continental statement — one built on African resources, African resolve, and African ambition. 

That Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam vision came into sharper focus this past week, when Ethiopia officially marked the launch of GERD in the presence of leaders from across Africa, the Caribbean, and beyond. It was a celebration not only of engineering, but of solidarity — a moment that gave physical form to the ideals of Pan-Africanism and South-South cooperation.

Ethiopia’s message together we will prevail

When Ethiopia first broke ground on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam more than a decade ago, it did so without financial support from global banks or the backing of financial powers. Faced with indifference and doubt, Ethiopians turned inward, rallied together, and looked to each other.

Together, we can turn our challenges into opportunities for peace, stability, and growth. From civil servants to shopkeepers, farmers to university students, millions of Ethiopians contributed what they could. Some gave a month’s salary. Others bought bonds in small amounts. In the end, a nation financed its dream with its own hands, hearts, and hard-earned birr.

Today, GERD stands as the largest hydropower project in Africa and one of the few major infrastructural achievements in the Global South built without external debt. But to describe GERD only in terms of megawatts and machinery is to miss its greater meaning. The dam is, in the words of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, “a symbol of resilience of the past and hope for the future.”

It is also a symbol of trust — in ourselves, in our continent, and in the principle that African problems are best addressed through African solutions.

A Pan-African Project

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam may be built on Ethiopian soil, but it is rooted in Pan-African ideals. When Ethiopia invited the African Union — and only the African Union — to mediate negotiations with downstream countries, it did so with deep conviction in the AU’s legitimacy and moral authority.

This is not merely a diplomatic stance. It reflects Ethiopia’s long-standing belief that cooperation, not coercion, must guide our shared use of natural resources. We understand, intimately, that rivers do not respect borders. But we also believe that development must not be denied, nor must it come at the expense of others.

In the words of Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud: “Our challenge is not to deny the needs of any one of us, but to find the ways to balance — in the spirit of fairness and mutual respect.”

Kenya’s President William Ruto echoed the sentiment: “This is not just a dam. It is a Pan-African statement.” He is right. GERD exemplifies the kind of transformative, African-led infrastructure project envisioned by Agenda 2063, the African Union’s blueprint for continental development.

It also aligns with the AU’s Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), which seeks to unlock Africa’s immense potential through cross-border integration and green investment.

Green Growth, Shared Power

GERD is not just about power in the electrical sense. It is about empowerment.

With a capacity of more than 5,000 megawatts, GERD is set to be the largest hydropower plant on the continent — poised to uplift Ethiopia’s industrial sector, expand rural access, and export power to neighbours.

Already, Ethiopia has begun supplying clean energy to Sudan, Kenya, and Djibouti, and talks are underway to export electricity to Tanzania, among others.  As President Salva Kiir of South Sudan said: “Together, we can turn our challenges into opportunities for peace, stability, and growth.”

When the international world said this project would not happen…the people stood tall

The project also strengthens Ethiopia’s commitment to climate-resilient growth. Hosting the 2nd African Climate Summit in Addis Ababa in September, Ethiopia underscored its resolve to lead on the continent’s green transition. GERD is proof that our climate goals are more than words — they are engineering realities.

A Bridge Across Oceans

As Ethiopia celebrated GERD’s inauguration, another historic summit was unfolding nearby: the 2nd Africa–CARICOM Summit, also held in Addis Ababa. Leaders from the Caribbean and Africa — two regions connected by pain, struggle, and resilience — came together to chart a future of shared prosperity, political solidarity, and reparatory justice.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley delivered one of the most moving tributes to GERD, calling it “the Adwa engineering feat.” Her words touched on more than scale — they invoked the spiritual legacy of Ethiopia’s 1896 victory against colonial invasion. That triumph, she reminded us, inspired generations across the African diaspora.

“When the international world said this project would not happen… the people stood tall,” she said. “$5 billion later, this speaks not just to prosperity but to what remains possible for all people of African origin.”

In that moment, GERD was no longer just Ethiopia’s. It became a collective symbol — a shared source of pride across continents and communities, from Kingston to Nairobi, from Bridgetown to Bamako.

The People’s Dam

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is not merely a government achievement. It is a people’s victory.

It is the woman who gave her gold earrings. The teacher who donated part of his pension. The diaspora who sent what they could from every corner of the globe. GERD is powered not just by turbines, but by a nation’s will to rise.

In Ethiopia, we call this spirit “Medemer” — a philosophy of synergy, of adding together. It is the ethos Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has promoted at home and abroad, a belief that when we combine our efforts with intention and dignity, the sum becomes greater than its parts.

It is this same spirit that guides our diplomacy, our energy policy, and our relationship with the wider African and Black global community.

Looking Forward, Together

As Ambassador of Ethiopia to the United Kingdom, I have the privilege of witnessing first-hand how narratives about Africa are changing. Where once we were seen only as recipients of aid, today we are recognized — and recognize ourselves — as agents of growth, innovation, and global relevance.

GERD is not a conclusion. It is a beginning.

A beginning of equitable energy access of African-led financing. Of regional cooperation that does not demand we compromise our dignity. It is a new solidarity between Africa and the diaspora.

To the people of Ethiopia: your endurance, sacrifice, and unity built this dam. And it is you who will carry its light forward.

To our African and Caribbean brothers and sisters: GERD is a gift we hope to share. It flows from our river, but it belongs to all who believe in progress shaped not by dominance, but by mutual uplift. As Prime Minister Mottley so eloquently put it, “Let us go forward in love, in unity — one aim, one purpose, one destiny. The Voice