South Sudan forces have arrested the oil minister and deputy head of the army, both allies of First Vice-President Riek Machar, as fears grew on Wednesday for the country’s fragile peace agreement.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, ended a five-year civil war in 2018 with a power-sharing agreement between bitter rivals President Salva Kiir and his deputy Machar.
Growing tensions have threatened to undo their unity government, particularly violent clashes in the northeastern Upper Nile State, where the government says there are ongoing clashes between the army and rebels backed by Machar’s forces.
Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth told reporters that a government garrison in the region was overrun by the rebels early Tuesday and that fighting was ongoing.
He accused Machar’s movement, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO), of being in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of armed youths in the region from the same ethnic Nuer community as the vice-president.
Since the attack, two close allies of Machar, Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol and deputy army chief General Gabriel Duop Lam, have been arrested, according to spokespersons.
Machar’s residence in the capital Juba was also surrounded by army forces on Tuesday although he was present in his office the following day, his spokesman said.
Those troops were not visible around the residence Wednesday evening, an AFP journalist reported.
“At two in the morning, the honourable Puot Kang Chol, several family members and his bodyguards were arrested at his Juba residence,” the minister’s spokesperson, Sirir Gabriel Yiei Ruot, posted on Facebook.
He blasted the development as “without explanation or legal justification.”
The SPLM-IO confirmed the arrest late Wednesday in a statement.
Duop Lam, likewise a high-ranking member of the party, was detained Tuesday.
‘Gravely concerned’
The civil war between Kiir’s and Machar’s forces began in 2013, just two years after the country gained independence from Sudan. It has left some 400,000 people dead.
Many steps of the peace agreement remain unfulfilled, including writing a constitution, holding elections and unifying their armed forces, while the country remains mired in poverty despite significant oil deposits.
Machar’s spokesperson said the general’s arrest on Tuesday “violates” the peace deal and called for an intervention by international partners.
“This act puts the entire agreement at risk,” he said.
“We take this opportunity to call upon the guarantors of the Agreement and partners to intervene in order to avoid a return to full-scale violence.”
The United Nations has warned of increasing clashes in Upper Nile State involving the use of “heavy weaponry” and multiple deaths.
On Wednesday, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a bloc of eight regional countries, said the clashes “threaten to undermine the hard-won gains achieved in the (peace agreement) and exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in the region”.
The development follows several political moves by Kiir, described by analysts as attempts to consolidate his position and sideline Machar.
Several embassies, including those of the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union, late Wednesday also urged restraint and a cessation of hostilities.
“We join our IGAD counterparts in calling for immediate cessation of hostilities and for all parties and their affiliates to exercise maximum restrain,” a joint statement read.
“Juba-based leaders must demonstrate their commitment to peaceful dialogue and should put the interest of the South Sudanese people first.”
Last month, Kiir fired two of the five vice-presidents in his unity government without consulting other stakeholders, and removed the governor of Western Equatoria State, a member of Machar’s movement.
Abraham Kuol Nyuon, associate professor for political science at the University of Juba, said the country could be on the brink of renewed war.
“Mostly our leaders are aggressive to each other… without embracing dialogue… without thinking about the people of South Sudan… (and) that could take this country back to conflict,” he told AFP.
