The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is set to convene the 43rd Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government to address the evolving situation in South Sudan.
The Summit will be held virtually on Wednesday, 12th March 2025.
“IGAD, as the guarantor of the Revitalised Agreement (R-ARCSS), remains steadfast in its commitment to promoting dialogue, de-escalating tensions, and securing a peaceful future for the people of South Sudan”, IGAD said in a statement.
Fighting in recent days has threatened an already fragile peace deal between President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar.
President Salva Kiir has called for calm and made an assurance that the country would not return to war.
In an escalation of the tensions, a UN helicopter that had been evacuating members of the national army was shot at on Friday, killing several people, including one crew member.
Earlier in the week, the deputy chief of the army and two ministers allied to Machar were arrested by security forces, which an opposition spokesman termed a “grave violation” of the peace deal.
The arrests of the Machar-allied officials followed clashes in the country’s Upper Nile state between government forces and a militia known as the White Army, which had fought alongside Machar during the civil war.
South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, gained independence in 2011 after seceding from Sudan.
But just two years later, following a rift between Kiir and Machar, the country descended into a civil war, in which more than 400,000 people were killed.
The 2018 power-sharing agreement between the two stopped the fighting, but key elements of the deal have not been implemented – including a new constitution, an election, and the reunification of armed groups into a single army.
Sporadic violence between ethnic or local groups has continued in parts of the country.
Additional reporting by Agencies
