South Sudan, the world's youngest country, is reeling from an escalating conflict between the government-aligned army and opposition forces, with observers warning of a potential return to a full-blown civil war. Violent confrontations between the military, loyal to President Salva Kiir, and insurgents believed to be allied with suspended Vice-President Riek Machar have intensified in recent weeks, raising fears of renewed widespread violence.
On Sunday, at least 169 people were killed after armed youth from Mayom county in the north raided a village in neighbouring Abiemnom county near the Sudan border. The victims included women, children, and members of government security forces, according to James Monyluak Majok, the information minister for the administrative area of Ruweng, where Abiemnom is located. The UN mission in South Sudan reported sheltering over 1,000 civilians in its base in the area and providing medical care to the injured, with about 23 people wounded in the attack.
Stephano Wieu de Mialek, the chief administrator of Ruweng, stated that the assault was carried out by individuals linked to the White Army, a militia allied with Machar during the civil war, alongside forces affiliated with Machar's political party and rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). The group denied responsibility for the attack, claiming no military presence in the area. On Monday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced that 26 of its staff were unaccounted for following recent violence in parts of Jonglei state, which has seen intense fighting between government and opposition forces since December.
The humanitarian organisation disclosed on 3 February that its hospital in Lankien had been hit in an airstrike by government forces, later burned and looted, and its health facility in Pieri was also looted. MSF noted regarding the missing staff: "We have lost contact with them amid ongoing insecurity" and was forced to suspend medical activities in Lankien and Pieri due to the deteriorating security situation.
Machar and Kiir were both members of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army guerrilla movement that fought for independence from Sudan, achieved in 2011, with Kiir becoming president and Machar first vice-president. South Sudan descended into a bloody civil war in 2013 after Kiir fired Machar and later accused him of planning a coup. Machar founded SPLM-IO, and both groups engaged in fighting that killed over 400,000 people and displaced nearly half the country's population, largely along ethnic lines between Kiir's Dinka community and Machar's Nuer group.
In 2018, Kiir and Machar signed a peace deal, ending the civil war, creating a unity government of the two parties, and reinstating Machar as vice-president. However, implementation of the agreement has barely progressed, as the two parties constantly clash over power-sharing. Last September, Machar was charged with murder, treason, and other serious crimes in connection with a deadly attack by the White Army on a government army garrison in Nasir county in the country's north-east. Kiir then suspended him from his post.
Machar is under house arrest as his trial continues. His supporters allege the charges are politically motivated, and observers have cautioned that Machar's prosecution could jeopardise the peace agreement. The prosecution and removal of Machar have inflamed tensions and coincided with a dramatic increase in violence, particularly in the opposition stronghold of Jonglei state, where opposition forces captured government outposts in December and the government has been conducting a counteroffensive since January.
Fighting between government and opposition forces there has displaced an estimated 280,000 people over the past two months. Daniel Akech, a senior analyst for South Sudan at the International Crisis Group, asserted that the government's "targeting" of Machar has unified the opposition. Akech explained that not only did the latest fighting involve rebel groups loyal to him, but it also drew in groups that had split from him in the past, as they now view him as a "symbolic unifying figure." Last Friday, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called for urgent action to preserve the peace agreement and prevent a return to all-out civil war, warning of a "dangerous point" with rising violence and deepening political uncertainty.
Source: www.theguardian.com