South Sudan has been plagued by political instability and violence since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011
The German government said Saturday that it is temporarily closing its embassy in South Sudan. “After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is once again on the brink of civil war,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on social media platform Bluesky.
The crisis team of the German Foreign Office “has therefore decided to close the embassy in the capital Juba for the time being. The safety of the employees has top priority,” she added.
Baerbock also wrote that South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, “are plunging the country into a spiral of violence. They have a responsibility to stop the senseless violence and finally implement the peace agreement.”
South Sudan has been plagued by political instability and violence since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011. In 2018, a peace deal signed between Machar and Kiir ended a five-year civil war in which more than 400,000 people were killed. Machar serves as the country’s first vice president in a government of national unity, even though his political group opposes Kiir.
The political rivalry between the two men is widely seen as a major obstacle to peace in South Sudan, with Kiir suspicious of his deputy’s ambitions and Machar calling Kiir a dictator.
UN Chief appeals for dialogue
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a rapidly deteriorating crisis in South Sudan on Saturday and called for urgent dialogue, immediate release of detained officials, and renewed commitment to the 2018 peace agreement.
He further appealed to the regional and international community to speak with one voice in support of peace in South Sudan.
“All the dark clouds of a perfect storm have descended upon the people of the world’s newest country – and one of the poorest,” Guterres said while addressing reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.
“South Sudan may have fallen off the world’s radar, but we cannot let the situation fall into the abyss,” he added and urged South Sudanese leaders to “put down the weapons” and “put all the people of South Sudan first.”
Guterres called for the restoration of the Government of National Unity and the full implementation of the peace agreement, which remains the only legal path to free and fair elections in December 2026.
“We fully support the initiative to deploy the African Union Panel of the Wise,” he said, adding that he had spoken with the Chairperson of the AU Commission.
South Sudan is now facing what the Secretary-General described as a security emergency, political upheaval, humanitarian catastrophe, displacement crisis, economic collapse and a severe funding shortfall all at once.
Half the population is severely food insecure, he warned, while three out of four people require humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, over one million people have fled across the border from Sudan since fighting broke out there last year between rival militaries, while cholera has also been reported, compounding the crisis.
Combined with growing regional spillover from the conflict in neighbouring Sudan, Guterres painted a dire picture of a country on the edge. “Let’s not mince words. What we are seeing is darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 civil wars, which killed 400,000 people,” he said.
Meanwhile, South Sudanese First Vice President (VP) Riek Machar was placed under house arrest in the national capital of Juba as the United Nations mission in the country called for restraint.
“Following reports tonight of the detention of First Vice President Riek Machar, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) calls on all parties to exercise restraint and uphold the Revitalised Peace Agreement,” Nicholas Haysom, special representative of the UN Secretary-General to South Sudan and head of UNMISS, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Haysom said the unilateral amendments by the parties to that agreement jeopardize the hard-won gains of the past seven years and risk returning the country to a state of war.
“This will not only devastate South Sudan but also affect the entire region,” he warned in the statement issued Wednesday night.
Haysom called on the parties to immediately cease hostilities and engage in constructive dialogue that puts the best interests of their people at the forefront of this pivotal moment for the country.
“Tonight, the country’s leaders stand on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict or taking the country forward toward peace, recovery, and democracy in the spirit of the consensus that was reached in 2018 when they signed and committed to implementing a Revitalized Peace Agreement,” he said.
Reath Muoch Tang, acting chairperson of the National Committee on Foreign Relations for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO), condemned the arrest as a violation of the 2018 peace agreement that formed the unity government.
Tang said the defence minister and chief of national security were in the convoy that delivered an arrest warrant to Machar, along with more than 20 heavily armed vehicles that forcibly entered his residence.
“His bodyguards were disarmed, and an arrest warrant was delivered to him under unclear charges. Attempts are currently being made to relocate him,” Tang said in a statement on Wednesday night.
He said the arrest was a “blatant” violation of the constitution and the Revitalised Peace Agreement, as no legal procedures, such as lifting his immunity, were followed.
