United Nations/Yuba, Mar 27 (EFE).- United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern on Thursday about the situation in South Sudan, saying the arrest of Vice president Riek Marchar brings the country “one step closer to the brink of collapse into civil war and the dismantling of the peace agreement,” said his spokesman Stephan Dujarric.
“We want to see a return to the revitalized peace agreement and that would include restoring the freedom of the first vice president,” Dujarric added.
The UN spokesman also pointed out that Sudan cannot “afford to endure the consequences of yet another civil war,” noting that 9.3 million South Sudanese are already in need of some form of humanitarian assistance.
South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, was the scene of a five-year war that killed some 400,000 people, which ended in 2018 with a peace deal that was never fully implemented.
The deal established a power-sharing arrangement between President Salva Kiir and Machar, which had been pending on thread in recent weeks amid high tensions and fighting in the north of the country between government forces and the White Army militia, once linked to the armed opposition.
On Mar. 4, government forces clashed with the White Army in Nasir, Upper Nile state, after the latter attacked a government garrison and abducted dozens of soldiers, triggering a wave of arrests in Juba of senior officials close to Machar.
Three days later, White Army fighters opened fire on a UN evacuation, killing dozens of soldiers and a crew member, prompting complaints from the UN, which said it had received assurances from the government and opposition that the operation was safe.
On Mar. 17, government forces began a bombing campaign in Nasir with the “technical” participation of the Ugandan army, an intervention that Yuba denied but later confirmed.
Machar, a key figure in the last civil war (2013-2018), led armed groups such as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), now the main opposition party, and the SPLM-Nasir.
Machar is from the Nuer ethnic group – the second largest in South Sudan – to which the White Army also belongs, while Kiir is from the majority Dinka tribe.
The government targeted the VP for his alleged control of the White Army, which the SPLM-IO denies, and the White Army branded him a traitor.
Preventing a new war
In statements to EFE, the official spokesman of the SPLM-IO, Pal Mai Deng said that Machar’s arrest meant the end of the 2018 peace agreement and left the country “on the brink of civil war.”
SPLM-IO Vice President Oyet Nathaniel Pierino appealed to international organizations to ensure the immediate release of Interior Minister Angelina Teny, Machar’s wife.
Several countries and international organizations also called for “restraint” and the VP’s release.
The United States was the first to respond, with a statement from the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs urging Kiir to release the vice president and “prevent further escalation of the situation.”
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) called for “restraint”, adding that “unilateral amendments by Parties to that agreement that jeopardize the hard-won gains of the past seven years risk returning the country back into a state of war.”
The UN’s commission for the country reminded the two factions that compliance with the peace agreement signed seven years ago is “mandatory,” urging them to increase diplomatic pressure on South Sudan’s political leaders and their parties to comply.
The Intergovernmental Authority on East African Development (IGAD), which mediated the peace negotiations, called on the parties to “refrain from unilateral actions that violate the spirit and letter of the R-ARCSS, which remains the only viable framework for sustainable peace in South Sudan.”
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, called for respect and “uphold the spirit and letter of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the conflict,” which he considered “a fundamental basis for lasting peace”.
The Kenyan government ed the calls for restraint, calling on “all parties in South Sudan to prioritize peace in the country by giving space to the ongoing peace agreements under the auspices of the IGAD Revitalised Agreement,” said Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Mudavadi Mudavadi. EFE
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