Uganda’s military chief announced on Tuesday that his country had deployed special forces to South Sudan’s capital, Juba, to “secure” the city amid escalating tensions between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, raising concerns of a potential return to civil war.
The latest tensions have emerged following the detention of two ministers and several high-ranking military officials aligned with Machar. While one minister has been released, the arrests, coupled with deadly clashes near the northern town of Nasir, threaten to unravel the 2018 peace deal that ended a brutal five-year civil war between Kiir and Machar’s factions, a conflict that claimed nearly 400,000 lives.
“As of two days ago, our Special Forces units entered Juba to secure it,” Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, posted on the X platform.
“We, the UPDF (Ugandan People’s Defence Forces), only recognize one President of South Sudan, H.E. Salva Kiir… any move against him is a declaration of war against Uganda,” he added.
Requests for comment from South Sudan’s government information minister and military spokesperson went unanswered.
Uganda had previously deployed troops in South Sudan during the 2013 outbreak of civil war, initially to support Kiir’s forces against Machar’s. The Ugandan forces were withdrawn in 2015, only to return in 2016 when fighting reignited, before being pulled out again.
Uganda is concerned that renewed conflict in South Sudan could lead to a surge of refugees across the border and further destabilize the region. Kainerugaba did not specify whether the latest deployment was made at Kiir’s request or how long Ugandan troops would remain in South Sudan.
