Detention of South Sudan's VP nullifies peace deal, his party says

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Mar 27, 2025 9:43 AM EDT | Last Updated: 17 minutes ago

The detention of South Sudan's First Vice-President Riek Machar nether location apprehension has efficaciously collapsed the bid woody that ended the 2013-2018 civilian war, his enactment said connected Thursday.

The UN peacekeeping ngo successful South Sudan called for restraint, saying the state stood connected the brink of relapsing into wide conflict.

"This volition not lone devastate South Sudan but besides impact the full region," UNMISS said successful a statement.

The five-year civilian war, which was fought mostly on taste lines, near hundreds of thousands of radical dormant successful the state that gained independency from Sudan in 2011.

Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, lawman seat of Machar's Sudan People's Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM-IO) party, said Machar's detention meant the statement had been "abrogated."

It "effectively brings the statement to a collapse, frankincense the imaginable for bid and stableness successful South Sudan has present been enactment into superior jeopardy," helium said.

The SPLM-IO said South Sudan's defence curate and main of nationalist information "forcefully entered" Machar's residence successful the capital, Juba, connected Wednesday evening to present an apprehension warrant.

Machar was being held with his woman astatine his home, accused of supporting the White Army militia that clashed with the subject successful Nasir, Sudan, this month, Reath Muoch Tang, a elder SPLM-IO authoritative said successful a statement.

Machar's enactment denies ongoing links with the White Army, which it fought alongside during the war.

The UN Commission connected Human Rights successful South Sudan said the arrests marked an unravelling of the bid process.

"The deliberate targeting of absorption leaders and civilians represents a reckless disregard for planetary instrumentality and the country's future," Yasmin Sooka, the commission's chairperson, said successful a statement.

Neighbouring Kenya, the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority connected Development determination economical bloc besides called for restraint.

South Sudan's service and authorities spokespeople did not instantly respond to requests for remark astir Machar oregon his party's connection connected the bid deal.

UN calls for committedness to peace

The service was heavy deployed adjacent Machar's location connected Thursday, a Reuters writer said. On Wednesday, the UN reported warring betwixt forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and Machar adjacent to Juba.

The United States Bureau of African Affairs urged Kiir to merchandise Machar and called connected South Sudan's leaders to "demonstrate sincerity of stated commitments to peace."

The conjugation government, successful which Machar shares powerfulness with his rival Kiir, has been dilatory to enact cardinal provisions of the bid agreement, which see nationalist elections and the unification of their 2 forces successful 1 army.

Political analysts accidental Kiir has been attempting to enactment up his presumption by rounding up some of Machar's astir elder allies, inviting Uganda's service to secure the capital and naming adviser Benjamin Bol Mel as 2nd vice-president.

They accidental Kiir, 73, is preparing Bol Mel, a businessman connected the U.S. sanctions database over his links to operation firms accused of money-laundering, to win him. South Sudan said astatine the clip the determination to blacklist Bol Mel was based connected misleading information.

The United Nations had already warned that the unit successful Nasir, astir 450 kilometres northeast of Juba, and a emergence successful hatred code could reignite the civilian warfare on taste lines.