UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk says peace deal risks collapse as nearly 2,000 civilians killed this year…reports Asian Lite News
South Sudan is teetering on the edge of another brutal conflict, the United Nations has warned, as new figures show a sharp surge in killings, abductions and sexual violence across the country.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, sounded the alarm on Friday, saying there were “intensifying fears” that the 2018 peace deal which ended a five-year civil war is close to breaking down. Without urgent action, he cautioned, the world’s youngest nation risks sliding back into “all-out fighting”.
According to UN monitoring, at least 1,854 civilians have been killed between January and September this year, with 1,693 more injured, 423 abducted and 169 subjected to sexual violence. The organisation noted that the true toll is likely higher because of limited access to some of the worst-hit areas. The increase represents a 59 per cent jump compared with the same period in 2024.
“This is unconscionable and must stop,” Turk declared in a statement. “I deeply worry for the plight of civilians in South Sudan and call on the country’s leaders, as well as the international community, to do everything in their power to pull South Sudan from the brink.”
The UN said fighting has escalated dramatically since March. Government forces have carried out airstrikes described as “indiscriminate” in several states, including Upper Nile, Jonglei, Unity, Central Equatoria and Warrap. Civilian infrastructure has not been spared, with homes, schools and health clinics destroyed in the bombardments. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their villages, adding to the country’s already dire humanitarian crisis.
Communal clashes are also fuelling the bloodshed. Inter-clan and ethnic violence, particularly in Warrap and Jonglei states, has pushed civilian deaths up by a third compared with last year. The UN documented at least 45 extrajudicial killings by security forces during 2025, underlining what Turk described as a climate of “impunity and lawlessness”.
The warning comes as the fragile power-sharing deal struck in 2018 — which brought together President Salva Kiir and his rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, after years of civil war — faces mounting pressure. That conflict, from 2013 to 2018, left nearly 400,000 people dead and displaced millions. Although the peace agreement reduced large-scale fighting, it left unresolved questions over governance, security and the integration of rival armed groups.
South Sudan’s political landscape has been further unsettled by the suspension of Riek Machar earlier this year. The rebel leader turned vice president faces charges including treason and crimes against humanity over a March attack on a military base. The UN rights chief urged Juba to ensure due process in the proceedings, warning that politicised justice risks undermining reconciliation efforts and fuelling new grievances.
Observers say the trial has sharpened divisions within the fragile coalition government, raising doubts about whether the peace arrangement can hold. Turk stressed that the country’s leaders must show restraint and commit to dialogue rather than confrontation. “The people of South Sudan deserve peace, dignity and a future beyond endless cycles of violence,” he said.
The rise in fighting comes at a time when South Sudan is grappling with severe humanitarian challenges. Flooding, food shortages and the influx of refugees fleeing neighbouring Sudan’s war have stretched the capacity of aid agencies to breaking point. According to the UN, more than nine million people — three-quarters of the population — are in need of assistance.
The destruction of schools and clinics has compounded the crisis, leaving children without education and families without access to basic healthcare. Humanitarian groups have repeatedly warned that renewed nationwide conflict would push the country into catastrophe, undoing fragile gains since the 2018 accord.
The UN’s latest report is likely to increase pressure on regional and international actors to step up their engagement. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and neighbouring countries have been involved in mediating between Kiir and Machar in recent years, but progress has been slow and uneven.
Turk appealed directly to those actors, as well as to the wider international community, to help shore up the peace process. “South Sudan cannot afford another descent into war. The cost to its people would be devastating, and the repercussions would destabilise the wider region,” he said.
Diplomats note that with global attention focused on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, South Sudan risks slipping down the international agenda. Yet the warning from the UN rights chief underscores that without renewed focus, the gains of the past seven years could unravel quickly.
For many South Sudanese, the sense of déjà vu is painful. The civil war that erupted just two years after independence in 2011 was marked by massacres, mass rape and famine. The prospect of returning to that dark chapter is terrifying for a population that has yet to see the dividends of peace.
As Turk’s warning makes clear, South Sudan now stands at a crossroads. Whether its leaders choose to prioritise reconciliation and reform, or fall back into armed confrontation, will determine the fate of millions. For now, the signs are ominous: more deaths, more displacement, and a peace agreement under growing strain.
The international community faces a stark choice too — to redouble efforts to prevent renewed conflict, or risk presiding over another preventable tragedy.
