South Sudan’s Fragile Peace on the Brink After Vice President Arrest

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Riek Machar, South Sudan’s Vice President and leader of the main governmental opposition party, SPLM-IO, has been detained by government forces in his home. In a video statement released on Wednesday night, SPLM-IO spokesperson Pal Mai Deng announced that Machar had been placed under house arrest by order of President Salva Kiir and that Machar’s life was ‘at risk’. Reath Muoch Tang, foreign relations committee chairperson for SPLM-IO, echoed Mr Deng’s message, adding that the arrest was part of the President’s attempt to ‘consolidate power through unconstitutional means’. 

The world’s youngest country, South Sudan’s conception in 2011 was shortly followed by civil war, in which 400,000 people were killed between 2013 and 2016. In 2018, a peace deal was formed to settle the continuous political upheaval, a peace deal Mr Deng understands to be ‘killed and buried’ in light of Machar’s arrest. 

Machar’s arrest comes amidst an upsurge in violence across the country, with his supporters clashing with government loyalists in the north and west regions and the southern capital. Such escalations have led to urgent responses from the UN, who warn that a relapse into civil war is increasingly likely.

Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, Nicholas Haysom, has urged both parties to ‘engage in constructive dialogue’ that prioritises the South Sudanese people. He warned of jeopardising the fragile peace ‘hard-won’ in the country over the last seven years, a peace that will be derailed, he stressed, without ‘restraint’. UN Secretary-General António Guterres constructed a more severe understanding of the situation in a press conference on Friday: ‘The peace agreement is in shambles’. Guterres made clear that the increasing aerial bombings and presence of external forces within South Sudan are forming a ‘humanitarian nightmare’ which must be solved through ‘diplomatic and political support for peace’.