South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, right, and Vice President Riek Machar, left, attend a Holy Mass led by Pope Francis at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. (Ben Curtis/AP)
JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudanese soldiers surrounded Vice President Riek Machar’s home in the capital on Wednesday and several of his allies were arrested after an armed group allied to him overran an army base in the country’s north.
Machar, whose political rivalry with President Salva Kiir has in the past exploded into civil war, said last month that the firing of several of his allies from posts in the government threatened the 2018 peace deal between him and Kiir that ended a five-year civil war in which more than 400,000 people were killed.
Deputy army chief Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, also loyal to Machar, was detained Tuesday over the fighting in the north, while Machar ally and Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol was arrested Wednesday alongside his bodyguards and family. No reason was given for the arrests.
Neither Machar nor his SPLM-IO party have commented about the fighting, but Water Minister Pal Mai Deng, who is also the party’s spokesperson, said Lam’s detention “puts the entire peace agreement at risk.”
Western envoys last week urged leaders to de-escalate the tension.
Ter Manyang Gatwich, Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Advocacy, has called for the immediate release of those detained to avert further escalation of violence and further bloodshed from degenerating into what he called a “full-scale war.”
South Sudan is yet to fully implement the 2018 peace agreement and elections that were scheduled for last year were postponed by two years due to a lack of funds.
