South Sudan is teetering on the brink of renewed conflict after the opposition claimed the overnight arrest of First Vice President Riek Machar has effectively nullified the 2018 peace agreement meant to end years of devastating civil war, Al Jazeera reports.
Machar, a longtime rival of President Salva Kiir, was reportedly apprehended by a convoy of approximately 20 heavily armed vehicles at his residence in Juba late Wednesday, according to a statement from a member of his party. The dramatic move marks a significant escalation in simmering tensions that have been building for weeks in the world’s youngest nation.
The power-sharing deal between Kiir and Machar, brokered in 2018, has been steadily unraveling, raising fears of a return to the civil war that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 400,000 people between 2013 and 2018.
The reported arrest has drawn widespread international condemnation, with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) warning that the country is now “on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict.”
The US Department of State on Thursday issued a statement on X, calling on President Kiir to “reverse this action and prevent further escalation.”
