Soldiers arrive at a market in an area recently recaptured by Sudan's army from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, in the Al Kalalah district, 40km south of Khartoum, on March 27.The Associated Press
South Sudan’s fragile peace agreement has effectively collapsed after heavily armed soldiers raided the home of Vice-President Riek Machar and placed him under house arrest, leaders of his political faction say.
The arrest late Wednesday followed weeks of worsening clashes between military forces linked to South Sudan’s two main rivals, Mr. Machar and President Salva Kiir. Their earlier feuding had led to a devastating civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people until they reached a power-sharing deal in 2018.
With military units roaming the capital, Juba, and battles erupting near the city this week, many South Sudanese are terrified that the world’s youngest country is teetering on the brink of another catastrophic war. Some have fled into United Nations protection camps for safety.
The conflict has already brought in neighbouring countries. Uganda has deployed troops to Juba to support the government forces, while fighters from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have crossed the border into South Sudan to clash with Mr. Machar’s militia.
Western governments and UN leaders are urging the rival sides to pull back from the edge of full-scale conflict.
“We must not allow South Sudan to repeat the mistakes of the past,” said Barney Afako, a member of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.
Failure to restrain the conflict will be “cataclysmic” and “a direct threat to millions of lives,” the commission said in a statement.
The UN’s World Food Program warned that armed conflict is the main reason for persistent hunger in South Sudan, where 57 per cent of the population is suffering from acute food insecurity and many are in near-famine conditions.
“As the country faces near-record levels of hunger, it cannot afford another war,” the WFP said on Thursday.
The feuding between Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar has been intensifying for months. But it took a dramatic turn for the worse in early March, when army barracks in Upper Nile state was overrun by a militia known as the White Army, largely composed of youths from the Nuer ethnic community who are seen as allies of Mr. Machar. An attack on UN helicopters, evacuating troops from the town, led to casualties among the troops and helicopter crew.
Mr. Kiir’s forces have retaliated with a series of bombing attacks across Upper Nile, including attacks with barrel bombs, allegedly containing a highly flammable liquid that acts as an accelerant on explosion.
“These indiscriminate attacks on civilians are causing significant casualties and horrific injuries, especially burns, including to women and children,” UN representative Nicholas Haysom told the Security Council this week.
Both sides have mobilized more fighters in Upper Nile, forcibly recruiting children into their ranks, he said. At least 63,000 people have fled the region since the fighting began.
Government forces, meanwhile, have arrested more than 20 of Mr. Machar’s political and military allies, accusing them of supporting the White Army. Backed by Ugandan troops, the army also attacked three cantonments near Juba where Mr. Machar’s forces are based, according to local media. Mr. Machar’s political party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM/IO), denounced the attacks as a breach of a ceasefire agreement.
The arrest of Mr. Machar was another significant escalation. A large convoy of military vehicles forcefully entered his compound, arrested his bodyguards and attempted to remove him from his home, according to a statement by his party. They eventually allowed him and his wife, Interior Minister Angelina Teny, to remain under house arrest.
“The country’s leaders stand on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict,” Mr. Haysom warned in a statement after the arrest.
The raid by the South Sudan soldiers effectively brings the peace agreement “to a collapse,” SPLM/IO deputy leader Oyet Nathaniel Pierino said. He accused Mr. Kiir of “an act of deceit.”
There are media reports that government forces and Ugandan troops are preparing a larger land offensive, while Nuer communities are mobilizing young men for militias to fight back.
The U.S. and British embassies in Juba have reduced their staffing to minimal levels. Both countries, along with Canada, urged their citizens to leave the country. Germany and Norway have closed their embassies entirely.
“President Kiir and Vice President Machar are plunging the country into a spiral of violence,” the German foreign ministry said in a social media post. “It’s their responsibility to end this senseless violence and finally implement the peace agreement.”
The African Union and the Kenyan government announced that they are sending envoys to South Sudan to push for peace.
Western governments, including Canada, were enthusiastic backers of South Sudan when it declared independence from Sudan in 2011, and Canada has provided $1.1-billion in foreign aid to it since then. But the country has been hobbled by corruption and political feuding, and has not held an election in 14 years.