South Sudan is sliding toward a renewed, large-scale conflict as fighting intensifies between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and insurgents linked to suspended vice-president Riek Machar. Recent weeks have seen a sharp uptick in clashes across the world’s youngest country, raising fears the 2018 peace deal could collapse.
On Sunday, at least 169 people were killed when armed youth from Mayom county attacked a village in neighbouring Abiemnom county near the Sudan border, officials said. Victims included women, children and members of government security forces, James Monyluak Majok, information minister for Ruweng administrative area, reported. The UN mission in South Sudan said it was sheltering more than 1,000 civilians in its base in the area and providing medical care; about 23 people were wounded in the raid.
Authorities and local officials said the assault involved people linked to the White Army—a militia that sided with Machar during the civil war—alongside forces affiliated with Machar’s party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). The White Army denied responsibility and said it had no military presence there.
Violence has been particularly intense in Jonglei state, where opposition forces seized government outposts in December and the government launched a counteroffensive in January. The conflict in Jonglei has displaced an estimated 280,000 people in the past two months. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said 26 of its staff were unaccounted for after recent clashes in parts of Jonglei; it also reported that its hospital in Lankien was struck in an airstrike, later burned and looted, and that a health facility in Pieri was looted. MSF has suspended medical activities in those locations because of insecurity.
The current escalation comes amid the prosecution and suspension of Riek Machar. Machar and Kiir were both leading figures in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army that fought for independence from Sudan in 2011; Kiir became president and Machar vice-president. The country descended into civil war in 2013 after Kiir dismissed Machar and accused him of plotting a coup. That war killed more than 400,000 people and displaced nearly half the population, largely along ethnic lines between Kiir’s Dinka and Machar’s Nuer communities.
A 2018 peace accord returned Machar to the vice-presidency and created a unity government, but implementation has been slow and contentious. Last September Machar was charged with murder, treason and other crimes over a deadly attack on a government garrison; he was suspended and placed under house arrest as his trial proceeds. Supporters say the charges are politically motivated, and analysts warn the prosecution risks undermining the peace agreement.
Daniel Akech, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said government moves against Machar have helped unify disparate rebel groups around him as a symbolic figure, even if he is detained and unable to command forces directly. The UN high commissioner for human rights has warned of the danger, calling for urgent steps to preserve the peace deal and prevent a return to full-scale civil war.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press
