FACT-CHECK: South Sudan didn’t reject a call for dialogue during the AU-C5 session

Written by Gabriel Garang Garang

A viral post on Facebook (archived), claiming that the government of South Sudan, through cabinet affairs minister Martin Elia Lomuro, has rejected a call for dialogue with suspended First Vice President Riek Machar Teny at the 39th Summit of the AU in Addis Ababa, is false.

The post shared by the Sixty 4 Tribes Press, a Facebook page with over 91,000 followers, claims the remarks were made by Cabinet affairs minister Martin Elia Lomuro during the AU-C5 meeting (archived), which was headed by the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, allegedly accusing some members of the AU of supporting Riek Machar Teny.

“The South Sudan government has rejected dialogue with the SPLM-IO leadership under Dr Riek Machar during the AU-C5 meeting in Addis Ababa,” the claim posted on Facebook, partly reads.

The Facebook post generated over 1,200 reactions, 442 comments and 32 shares, showing the virality, and the comments section shows the believability with which people accepted the claim.

Another source that posted a similar claim can be seen here (archived).

Debunking the Claim:

A Google keyword search (archived) of the keywords in the statement as a way of looking for whether the same words were being used by reputable and reliable sources didn’t yield the same words; however, it had some leads.

Eye Radio on the 15th of February 2026 published an article with the headline “Kiir pledges an inclusive dialogue during the C5 summit in Addis Ababa.”

Other reliable sources which reported about the AU-C5 Summit, which was headed by the South African Cyril Ramaphosa, can be seen here, here, and here.

Our Verdict:

The ClarityDesk finds the claim that the South Sudan government through cabinet affairs minister Martin Elia Lomoro rejected a call for dialogue with the suspended Vice President Dr Riek Machar during the AU C5 meeting that the government to be false.

This article is published by The ClarityDesk, with the support of the Election Civic Tech Fund of AfricTivistes, within the AHEAD Africa and Digitalise Youth projects, led by the Digital Democracy Initiative.

Have you spotted an error in this article and would like to request a correction, or have you come across a claim that we should investigate? Please send us an email via editor@claritydesk.org or click here to WhatsApp us via +211 928 606 958.