The US has revoked visas for South Sudanese. Is Sudan’s conflict merging with South Sudan's conflict?

THE US has abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying the country’s government has failed to accept the return of its citizens “in a timely manner.” The decision means South Sudanese could be returned to a nation again on the brink of civil war or unable to seek the US as a haven. 

Tension is rising in South Sudan after the vice president was put under house arrest. South Sudan is on the brink of another civil war, the United Nations has warned, after weeks of escalating violence and rising tensions between VP Machar and President Kiir. In short, Sudan's conflict could be merging with South Sudan's conflicts. Read more in four reports below.

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From The Associated Press (AP) 
By Cara Anna
Dated Sunday, 06 April 2025, 5:35 PM GMT - full copy:

The US has revoked visas for South Sudanese while civil war threatens at home

South Sudan soldiers patrol the street in Juba, South Sudan on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga) 

FILE - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir attends the swearing-in ceremony for Kenya's new president William Ruto, at Kasarani stadium in Nairobi, Kenya on Sept. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

FILE - South Sudanese president Salva Kiir Mayardit, left, shakes hands with Pagan Amum Okiech, leader of the Real-SPLM group, during the launch of high-level peace talks for South Sudan at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga) 

The United States once cheered the creation of South Sudan as an independent nation. Now the Trump administration has abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying the country’s government has failed to accept the return of its citizens “in a timely manner.”

The decision means South Sudanese could be returned to a nation again on the brink of civil war or unable to seek the U.S. as a haven.

There was no immediate response from South Sudan’s government, which has struggled since independence from Sudan in 2011 to deliver some of the basic services of a state. Years of conflict have left the country of over 11 million people heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance.

Here’s a look at South Sudan, whose people had been granted temporary protected status by the U.S. because of insecurity at home. That status expires on May 3.

A deadly divide

The euphoria of independence turned to civil war two years later, when rival factions backing President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar opened fire on each other in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in 2013.

The two men’s tensions have been so much at the heart of the country’s insecurity that Pope Francis once took the extraordinary step of kneeling to kiss their feet in one of his pleas for lasting peace.

Five years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. A peace deal reached in 2018 has been fragile and not fully implemented, to the frustration of the U.S. and other international backers. Notably, South Sudan still hasn’t held a long-delayed presidential election, and Kiir remains in power.

His rivalry with Machar, compounded by ethnic divisions, has simmered through multiple attempts to return Machar as a vice president. Machar has long regarded himself as destined for the presidency, citing a prophecy years ago by a seer from his ethnic group.

Late last month, the threat of war returned. Machar was arrested and his allies in the government and the military were detained following a major escalation: A militia from Machar’s ethnic group had seized an army garrison upcountry. The government responded with airstrikes. Dozens of people were killed. A United Nations helicopter was attacked.

View original: https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-revoked-visas-south-sudanese-163537095.html

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Related

South Sudan on brink of civil war, UN's Haysom warns

UN News by Vibhu Mishra 24 March 2025:

“The time for action is now because the alternative is too terrible to contemplate” -Nicholas Haysom, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS)

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2025/03/south-sudan-on-brink-of-civil-war-uns.html

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Is South Sudan heading to another civil war?

AlJazeera English video report (28 mins) 28 March 2025:

Tension is rising in South Sudan after the vice president is put under house arrest.

South Sudan is on the brink of another civil war, the United Nations has warned, after weeks of escalating violence and rising tensions between Vice President Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir.

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/inside-story/2025/3/28/is-south-sudan-heading-to-another-civil-war

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Is Sudan’s war merging with South Sudanese conflicts?

AlJazeera English article by Mat Nashed 29 March 2025:

New alliances in Sudan’s conflict risk sparking a regional conflict by drawing in neighbouring South Sudan, analysts tell Al Jazeera. The biggest development was an alliance in February between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who established a government to rival Sudan’s current de facto leadership.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/3/29/sudans-war-risks-merging-with-conflict-in-south-sudan-say-analysts

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S. Sudan deploys first unified forces after peace deal

Report from Asharq Al Awsat
Dated Thursday, 16 November 2023 - here is a copy in full:

S.Sudan Deploys First Unified Forces After Peace Deal

President Salva Kiir of South Sudan. (Reuters)

Hundreds of former rebels and government troops in South Sudan's unified forces were deployed at a long-overdue ceremony on Wednesday, marking progress for the country's lumbering peace process.

The world's newest nation has struggled to find its footing since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, battling violence, endemic poverty and natural disasters.

The unification of forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, was a key condition of the 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year conflict in which nearly 400,000 people died, according to AFP.

Tens of thousands of former fighters were integrated into the country's army in August last year but none have been deployed until now, with the delays fuelling frustration in the international community.

The first battalion comprising nearly 1,000 soldiers will be deployed to Malakal in northern Upper Nile State, which has received huge numbers of South Sudanese refugees fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Sudan.

At the ceremony on the outskirts of the capital Juba, Santino Wol, the country's chief of defence forces, urged the battalion to remain united, saying: "Be a soldier and don't get involved in politics."

The unity government led by Kiir and Machar has largely failed to meet key provisions of the peace agreement, including drafting a constitution and electoral legislation ahead of polls now set for next year.

Kiir has vowed to hold the country's first ever presidential ballot by December 2024, but UN envoy Nicholas Haysom warned in August that the authorities needed to create a conducive environment to ensure "peaceful, inclusive and credible elections".

"We are going for elections and you are to make sure that peace prevails so that elections can proceed peacefully," Information Minister Michael Makuei told the soldiers on Wednesday.

One of the poorest countries on the planet despite large oil reserves, South Sudan has spent almost half of its life as a nation at war and continues to be roiled by outbreaks of politically motivated ethnic violence.

View original:  https://english.aawsat.com/world/4671621-ssudan-deploys-first-unified-forces-after-peace-deal

 

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Sudan Coup Crisis: UN chief appoints Nicholas Haysom to help African Union mediation in Sudan

• UN Chief Appoints Adviser to Help AU Mediation in Sudan
• Report from Voice of America.com
• By Margaret Besheer
• Published Tuesday April 16, 2019 5:45 PM 
• The U.N. secretary-general has appointed special adviser Nicholas Haysom to support the African Union's mediation efforts in Sudan, where the military ousted longtime President Omar al-Bashir last week.
• "He is being put at disposal of the African Union, which we understand will be engaged in some mediation capacity between the transitional council in Khartoum and various parts of Sudanese society," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Tuesday. "Mr. Haysom will be there to support them in whatever way he can."
• He said that U.N. chief António Guterres had spoken Monday with Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chair of the African Union Commission, and told him that Haysom would be available.
• "The secretary-general is very attached to his partnership with the African Union and he will do whatever he can to support their efforts," Dujarric said.
• Haysom was most recently the U.N.'s top man in Somalia, but was expelled after four months by the Somali federal government, after he tried to intervene on behalf of a former al-Shabab leader who sought to take part in elections but was banned by Somalia's electoral commission.
• Haysom, a South African lawyer, was previously the U.N. special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan and was head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan.
• The African Union Peace and Security Council issued a strong statement Monday condemning the military takeover in Sudan as an unconstitutional change of government, and demanding the military hand over power to a transitional civilian-led political authority within 15 days.
• Failure to do so, the AU warned, would result in Sudan's suspension from participation in all African Union activities until constitutional order is restored.
• Sudan's General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, head of the Rapid Support Forces, is sworn-in as the appointed deputy of Sudan's Transitional Military Council, standing before the head of transitional council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan
• Meanwhile, in Khartoum Tuesday, the country's new military ruler, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, fired the country's top prosecutor in an apparent concession to demonstrators' demands.
• Protest leaders have called for the new ruling military council to be dissolved and replaced by a civilian one, in the wake of the military coup that ousted President al-Bashir last week.
• Mohamed Naji, a senior leader of the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) — the main group behind months of protests against al-Bashir — said the group wants to see a civic council formed that includes representatives from the army.
• On Sunday, Sudan's military council said it would name a civilian prime minister and cabinet minister to help run the country but would not name a civilian to the office of the president. A military spokesman also said the council would not stop the demonstrations that are continuing.
• The SPA has called for more demonstrations until its demands are met.
• The protests began Dec. 19, with demonstrators accusing al-Bashir's government of economic mismanagement that sparked skyrocketing food prices, and fuel and foreign currency shortages.
• Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in connection with atrocities in the western region of Darfur. However, the military leaders have said he will not be turned over to the ICC, but will instead be tried in Sudan.
• Source:  https://www.voanews.com/a/un-chief-appoints-adviser-to-help-au-mediation-in-sudan/4878727.html
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• 
  
• Updates
• Uganda willing to offer Al-Bashir asylum
• Here below is a link to a video report plus a copy of an accompanying written report by SABC Digital News published at Google’s YouTube on Tuesday, 16 April 2019:
• “The government of Uganda says it is willing to consider granting asylum to deposed Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir. It says, this in appreciation for his role in the South-Sudan peace deal. Uganda's State Minister for foreign affairs Henry Okello Oryem, said on Tuesday in Kampala, that if al-Bashir applied for asylum in Uganda his government could consider the matter. We are now joined LIVE for more on this story by Correspondent Michale Baleke from Kampala, Uganda.”
  Click here to view the video:  https://youtu.be/CLHWaD87WtU
  South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is funded in whole or in part by the South African government. Wikipedia
• Also, posted on this blog’s sister sites UGANDA WATCH and CONGO WATCH.
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  Ex-President Omar al-Bashir moved to prison
  Here is a copy of a report by BBC News online published Wednesday April 17, 2019 11:50 GMT UK:
• Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir has been moved to Kobar maximum security prison, days after he was deposed in a military coup. Reports say the ex-leader has until now been detained at the presidential residence under heavy guard.
  He is reportedly being held in solitary confinement and is surrounded by tight security.
  Months of protests in Sudan led to the ousting and arrest of the long-time ruler on Thursday.
  Uganda's Minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Oryem Okello told Reuters news agency the country would consider offering the deposed leader asylum if he applied, despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
  As an ICC member, Uganda would have to hand over Mr Bashir if he arrived in the country. The ICC has not yet commented.”
  Click here to read the full story and live updates at BBC News online:
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47961424