A prominent party in South Sudan’s coalition government announced on Tuesday that it was suspending its involvement in a key aspect of the 2018 peace agreement, as tensions between First Vice President Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir intensify following clashes and arrests.
The peace deal, which ended a five-year civil war between Kiir’s and Machar’s forces, now faces new challenges. Machar, leader of the SPLM-IO party, and Kiir, who heads the government, have a historically strained relationship that has worsened in recent weeks due to violence in the country’s east.
Earlier this month, South Sudanese security forces detained several SPLM-IO officials, including the petroleum minister and the deputy head of the army, after ethnic White Army militias pushed government troops out of Nasir, a town near the Ethiopian border.
The government has accused SPLM-IO of ties to the White Army, which consists mostly of Nuer youth fighters who supported Machar during the 2013-2018 civil war. SPLM-IO denies the accusations.
Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, deputy chairman of SPLM-IO, stated on Tuesday that the party would not participate in security arrangements related to the peace process until the detained officials were released.
“The ongoing political witch-hunts continue to threaten the very essence and existence of the peace deal,” Pierino said.
The violence around Nasir in Upper Nile state has displaced around 50,000 people since late February, with 10,000 seeking refuge in Ethiopia, according to United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Anita Kiki Gbeho.
Growing Concerns Over Civil War Resurgence
Nicholas Haysom, the UN peacekeeping chief in South Sudan, expressed concern that the country could be on the verge of returning to civil war.
“With the spread of misinformation and hate speech, there are growing fears the conflict could take on an ethnic dimension,” Haysom warned in an address to the African Union.
Analysts suggest the ongoing conflict in neighboring Sudan has contributed to the destabilization of South Sudan’s peace process, as the country’s oil revenues dry up, regional tensions rise, and arms flood across the border.
“We’re already seeing early signs of spillover fighting from the Sudan war into Upper Nile. It will be difficult to prevent these tensions from reaching Juba,” said Alan Boswell of the International Crisis Group.
