A peace deal ending a conflict that killed tens of thousands in South Sudan is in danger of collapsing, raising fears that the world\u2019s youngest nation \u2014 and one of its poorest \u2014 could swiftly lapse back into war. <\/p>\n
South Sudan split from the rest of Sudan in 2011 after decades of pro-independence unrest but has struggled to keep the peace in its territory, which is divided along ethnic lines. <\/p>\n
It plunged into a civil war in 2013 and then again three years later, until the violence was stopped by a fragile ceasefire agreement in 2018. <\/p>\n
The nation is governed by a coalition government, led by President Salva Kiir and five vice presidents, who include Kiir\u2019s rival Riek Machar, the leader of the SPLM\/A-IO party. <\/p>\n
Machar was arrested this week, prompting the SPLM\/A-IO to issue a statement Thursday saying his detention \u201ceffectively brings the (peace) agreement (between him and Kiir) to a collapse.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe prospect for peace and stability in South Sudan has now been put into serious jeopardy,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n
Machar\u2019s arrest followed the sacking and arrest of other prominent officials from the SPLM\/A-IO, as well as the arrival of troops from neighboring Uganda at Kiir\u2019s invitation to help South Sudan\u2019s military fight a local militia. The SPLM\/A-IO condemned what it called \u201cmilitary aggression against civilians\u201d by the Ugandan forces. <\/p>\n
Machar also condemned Uganda\u2019s military intervention in a letter to the United Nations\u2019 secretary-general on March 23, saying it violated the terms of the peace deal. <\/p>\n
South Sudan has never held a national election. Its current government is the result of a power-sharing agreement struck in 2018 between Kiir and Machar. The deal ended a five-year-civil war, which killed an estimated 400,000 people. <\/p>\n
South Sudan is polarized between the majority Dinka tribe, which Kiir hails from, and Machar\u2019s Nuer ethnic group, the second-largest in the country. <\/p>\n
Clashes this month in the town of Nasir between government forces and a Nuer militia known as the White Army have shaken the nation\u2019s fragile peace. Dozens have been killed in the clashes, local media reported. <\/p>\n
On Friday, authorities confirmed Machar\u2019s arrest, accusing him of encouraging the militia to overrun a military base in Nasir and attack a UN helicopter. The White Army, for its part, denies ties with Machar or his party. <\/p>\n
He cited \u201cintelligence and security reports.\u201d <\/p>\n
Makuei added that Machar and \u201chis anti-peace colleagues of the SPLM\/A-IO\u201d \u2013 which he said preached hate and tribalism \u2013 \u201cwill be investigated and brought to book accordingly.\u201d <\/p>\n
The SPLM\/A-IO has not commented on these allegations. <\/p>\n
UN spokesperson St\u00e9phane Dujarric has warned that Machar\u2019s arrest and the unrest in the country were taking the nation \u201cone step closer to the edge of a collapse into civil war.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe peace agreement is in shambles,\u201d UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Friday and called for de-escalation. He added that the clashes were \u201cdarkly reminiscent\u201d of the earlier civil wars. <\/p>\n
Western nations have also sought to cool tempers. In a joint statement Thursday, the embassies of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands and Norway in South Sudan, as well as the European Union delegation urged Kiir to reverse Machar\u2019s arrest and called for a ceasefire between armed groups. <\/p>\n
In a sign of the fragile situation in the country, the US embassy has urged Americans to flee South Sudan while they still can. Similar advice was issued by Britain. <\/p>\n
The African Union, which comprises 55 African nations, has said it will deploy a delegation to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, \u201cto de-escalate the situation.\u201d <\/p>\n
Separately, an envoy of William Ruto, the president of neighboring Kenya, arrived in Juba Friday and held talks with Kiir. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am encouraged by the possibility of a resolution to the conflict,\u201d Raila Odinga said after the meeting, adding he would brief East African leaders on \u201ca possible roadmap to sustainable peace and stability.\u201d <\/p>\n
In October, the World Bank made a bleak assessment of the situation. <\/p>\n
Violence, weak management of public resources and \u201cpolitical contestation\u201d have \u201cintensified existing humanitarian needs,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n
And in a report in December, it said that more than two-thirds of the population in the oil-rich nation were extremely poor, living on less than $2.15 per day. <\/p>\n
Despite its economic troubles, South Sudan harbors more than half a million refugees from war-torn neighbors Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, based on data from the UN Refugee Agency. <\/p>\n
On Friday, the UN described South Sudan as \u201ca country on the edge,\u201d saying it faced \u201cmultiple crises at once.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cSouth Sudan may have fallen off the world\u2019s radar \u2026 but we cannot let the situation fall over the abyss,\u201d Guterres said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A peace deal ending a conflict that killed tens of thousands in South Sudan is in danger of collapsing, raising fears that the world\u2019s youngest nation \u2014 and one of its poorest \u2014 could swiftly lapse back into war. South Sudan split from the rest of Sudan in 2011 after decades of pro-independence unrest but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}