South Sudan appears to be sliding back toward broad-scale fighting as clashes intensify between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and insurgents linked to suspended vice-president Riek Machar. A recent surge in violence across the country has raised fears that the fragile 2018 peace agreement could unravel.
Authorities reported that at least 169 people were killed in a single assault on Sunday when armed youth from Mayom county attacked a village in neighboring Abiemnom county near the Sudan border. James Monyluak Majok, information minister for Ruweng administrative area, said the dead included women, children and members of government security forces. The UN mission in South Sudan said it was sheltering more than 1,000 people at its base nearby and provided medical care to roughly 23 wounded victims.
Local officials and government sources said the attackers included members of the White Army militia—historically allied with Machar during earlier fighting—working alongside forces tied to Machar’s party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). The White Army denied responsibility and said it had no fighters in the area.
Jonglei state has seen particularly severe violence. Opposition fighters seized government outposts in December and the government launched a counteroffensive in January, displacing an estimated 280,000 people over the past two months. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that 26 of its staff were unaccounted for after recent clashes. MSF also said its hospital in Lankien was hit by an airstrike, later burned and looted, and that a health facility in Pieri was looted; medical activities at those sites have been suspended because of insecurity.
The uptick in violence comes amid the prosecution and suspension of Riek Machar. Both Machar and Kiir were senior commanders in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army that led South Sudan to independence in 2011; Kiir became president and Machar vice-president. In 2013, Kiir dismissed Machar and accused him of plotting a coup, triggering a civil war that 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 established a unity government, but implementation has been slow and disputed. In September Machar was charged with murder, treason and other offenses over a deadly attack on a government garrison; he was suspended and placed under house arrest while his trial proceeds. Supporters decry the charges as politically motivated, and analysts warn the prosecution risks undermining the peace process.
Analyst Daniel Akech of the International Crisis Group said actions against Machar have helped coalesce scattered rebel groups around him as a symbolic leader, even if he is detained and cannot directly command forces. The UN high commissioner for human rights has urged urgent measures to preserve the peace agreement and prevent a return to full-scale civil war.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press