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The embassies of Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Britain, United States and European Union said Friday that South Sudan’s political and security situation has “markedly worsened” in ways not seen since the end of the country’s civil war.
Months of clashes between President Salva Kiir’s forces and those loyal to the first vice-president Riek Machar, who was arrested in March, have stoked fears of a return to the civil war that only ended in 2018 after claiming some 400,000 lives.
The deal ending the five-year conflict has looked increasingly fragile as Kiir’s allies have accused Machar’s allies of fomenting unrest in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of ethnic Nuer armed youths.
In a joint statement, the embassies said they “strongly concur” with a recent assessment by the Chairman of the Revitalised Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) — the body supervising implementation of the peace deal — noting “the political and security situation in South Sudan has markedly worsened in ways not seen since 2018”.
The RJMEC quarterly report said on Monday that “in scenes not seen since the signing of the R-ARCSS over six years ago”, a reference to the peace deal, armed conflict and violence had “erupted across the country” with opposition politicians detained and Machar under house arrest.
The embassies warning follows a recent government statement listing nine counties that contain the Nuer ethnic group as “considered hostile”, meaning aligned with Machar’s party. The move was labelled by an opposition politician as “nothing short of a mapping for genocide”.
The embassies said they “deplore” such a move by the government.
The statement also reaffirmed their “urgent call” for Machar’s release, as well as urging all leaders “to end the use of violence as a tool for political competition” and to return to dialogue “urgently aimed at achieving a political solution”.
Since March the violence has led to the deaths of at least 200 people across several South Sudan states and displaced around 125,000 more, according to the United Nations.
International bodies have increasingly sounded the alarm over the situation, which since declaring independence in 2011 has battled chronic instability and insecurity.
