South Sudan’s main opposition group has called for an international investigation into government attacks on its strongholds, citing grave human rights abuses.
The demand follows fresh fighting in northern regions between government troops and the White Army, a militia believed to support opposition leader Riek Machar.
Machar, the country’s vice president and a long-standing rival of President Salva Kiir, remains under house arrest amid accusations of subversion.
Clashes since March have left dozens dead, particularly around the town of Nasir, a Machar stronghold overrun by rebel forces before government counterattacks.
Government troops responded with airstrikes and raids on opposition sites, including barracks near the capital, Juba, intensifying fears of renewed civil war.
Opposition spokesman Pal Mai Deng urged the global community to investigate reported use of chemical weapons in airstrikes, particularly around Nasir.
Human Rights Watch recently accused government forces of deploying incendiary weapons that burned civilians and destroyed key infrastructure in Upper Nile state.
“These weapons not only inflict severe burns but also raze civilian homes, violating humanitarian law,” the New York-based watchdog warned.
The government has not responded publicly, but officials have reportedly ordered civilians to evacuate Nasir. Several of Machar’s allies have also been detained.
The recent violence threatens to unravel a fragile 2018 peace deal that ended five years of civil war, which claimed over 400,000 lives.
Machar’s faction accuses Kiir of undermining the peace accord through targeted firings and “persistent violations” of its terms.
Once hailed as a beacon of hope after its 2011 independence, South Sudan now teeters on the edge of renewed conflict, haunted by deep political and ethnic rifts.
Presidential elections, long delayed, are now scheduled for 2026—though doubts over their feasibility continue to grow.
