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

“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)

Read more in report from UN News

By Vibhu Mishra

Dated Monday, 24 March 2025 - full copy:

South Sudan on the brink of civil war, top UN official warns

© WFP/Peter Louis Displaced people in Renk County, Upper Nile State, South Sudan. (file)

South Sudan is teetering on the brink of a return to full-scale civil war as violence escalates and political tensions deepen, the head of the UN Mission in the country (UNMISS) warned on Monday.

Briefing journalists at UN Headquarters in New York via videolink from Juba, Nicholas Haysom described indiscriminate attacks on civilians, mass displacement and rising ethnic tensions.

He urged all parties to pull back from the brink and commit to peace before the country plunges into another devastating conflict.

“A conflict would erase all the hard-won gains made since the 2018 peace deal was signed. It would devastate not only South Sudan but the entire region, which simply cannot afford another war,” he warned.

Fragile peace at risk

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, but the world’s youngest nation has been plagued by conflict and instability ever since.

A civil war erupted in 2013 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those aligned with his former deputy, Riek Machar. The war – marked by ethnic violence, mass atrocities and widespread humanitarian crisis – lasted until a fragile peace deal was signed in 2018.

Though the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement brought a degree of stability, delays in its implementation and continued political rivalries have kept tensions simmering.

Mounting violence

The latest wave of violence erupted on 4 March when the so-called White Army – a youth militia – overran South Sudanese army barracks in Nasir, Upper Nile province.

In response, Government forces launched retaliatory aerial bombardments on civilian areas, using barrel bombs that allegedly contained highly flammable accelerants.

“These indiscriminate attacks on civilians are causing significant casualties and horrific injuries, especially burns, including to women and children,” Mr. Haysom said, adding that at least 63,000 people have fled the area.

Reports indicate that both the White Army and national forces are mobilising for further confrontations, with allegations of child recruitment into armed groups.

The deployment of foreign forces at the request of the Government has further heightened tensions, evoking painful memories of the country’s previous civil wars.

Rising ethnic tensions

Political tensions are also escalating, Mr. Haysom continued.

Senior officials affiliated with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) – the main rival militia – have been removed, replaced, detained, or forced into hiding.

There is also an increasing use of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, which is fuelling ethnic divisions and fear, making reconciliation even more difficult.

“Given this grim situation, we are left with no other conclusion, but to assess that South Sudan is teetering on the edge of a relapse into civil war,” the senior UN official warned.

Diplomatic efforts stalled

Mr. Haysom further reported that UNMISS has engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts alongside regional and international partners, including the African Union (AU), the regional development bloc, IGAD, and the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission.

However, a scheduled high-level visit by IGAD foreign ministers to Juba, aimed at mediating between the parties, was abruptly postponed by the South Sudanese government without explanation.

“This is a disappointing development at a time when diplomatic outreach is more important than ever,” he said.

Recommit to peace

Mr. Haysom urged South Sudan’s leaders to immediately recommit to the 2018 peace deal, respect the ceasefire, release detained officials and resolve disputes through dialogue rather than military confrontation.

He also called for President Kiir and First Vice President Machar to meet and publicly reaffirm their joint commitment to peace.

“The time for action is now because the alternative is too terrible to contemplate.”

WATCH VIDEO: Nicholas Haysom, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for South Sudan speaks to the press via videolink.

View original: Here

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Germany shuts South Sudan Embassy amid civil war fears. German Embassy in Kampala, Uganda is open

THE German government said Saturday that it is temporarily shuttering its embassy in Juba, South Sudan amid safety concerns over a deteriorating security situation that is once again on the brink of civil war. The German Embassy in Kampala, Uganda is open as usual for passports etc. Read more.

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Report from Deutsche Welle (DW)
By Richard Connor with AFP, AP, dpa
Edited by Louis Oelofse
Dated Saturday, 22 March 2025 - full copy:

Germany shuts South Sudan embassy amid civil war fears

Berlin says it is temporarily shuttering its embassy in South Sudan amid safety concerns over a deteriorating security situation. Civil war once again looks in the world's youngest country.

Kiir (L) and Machar formed a transitional government but the arrangement now looks shaky. Image: Peter Louis Gume/AFP

The German Foreign Office on Saturday said it would temporarily close its embassy in South Sudan's capital, Juba, in light of renewed and escalating violence.

While President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his erstwhile opponent Riek Machar formed a joint government of national unity in 2020, the accord now threatens to collapse.

What the German government said

"After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is once again on the brink of civil war," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced.

"President Kiir and Vice President Machar are plunging the country into a spiral of violence. They have a responsibility to stop the senseless violence and finally implement the peace agreement," Baerbock continued.

The minister said the safety of employees was the top priority.

Why is South Sudan getting dangerous again?

South Sudan, with a population of around eleven million, went through a bloody civil war — with Kiir and Machar on opposite sides — after gaining independence from its northern neighbor Sudan in 2011.

Although they agreed to form a transitional government after a 2018 peace deal, with Machar as vice president, that arrangement looks perilously close to failing.

For weeks, a militia from the Nuer ethnic group, to which Machar belongs, has been fighting government soldiers on the border with Ethiopia.

The army accuses Machar's party of fueling the conflict, while Machar accuses Kiir of wanting to depose his supporters.

While the fighting is more than 1,300 kilometers (about 800 miles) from the capital, the sparks threaten to spread to other parts of the country. Warring parties in neighboring Sudan are also threatening to intervene.

German diplomats, together with representatives from Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Great Britain, the USA, and the EU, have offered to mediate between Kiir and Machar.

View original: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-shuts-south-sudan-embassy-amid-civil-war-fears/a-72007695

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Related

Report from and by The Associated Press (AP)

Dated Saturday, 22 March 2025 11:43 am - full copy:

Germany closes its embassy in South Sudan as it teeters on the brink of civil war

Image: Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a press conference in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, March 20, 2025. 

Credit: AP/Omar Sanadiki

BERLIN — The German government said Saturday that it is temporarily closing its embassy in South Sudan.

“After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is once again on the brink of civil war,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on social media platform Bluesky.

The crisis team of the German Foreign Office "has therefore decided to close the embassy in the capital Juba for the time being. The safety of the employees has top priority," she added.

Baerbock also wrote that South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, “are plunging the country into a spiral of violence. They have a responsibility to stop the senseless violence and finally implement the peace agreement.”

South Sudan has been plagued by political instability and violence since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

In 2018, a peace deal signed between Machar and Kiir ended a five-year civil war in which more than 400,000 people were killed. Machar serves as the country’s first vice president in a government of national unity, even though his political group opposes Kiir.

The political rivalry between the two men is widely seen as a major obstacle to peace in South Sudan, with Kiir suspicious of his deputy’s ambitions and Machar calling Kiir a dictator.

Image: Children sit and play on the remains of a tank, at the river port in Renk, South Sudan on May 17, 2023. Credit: AP/Sam Mednick

View original: https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/germany-south-sudan-war-embassy-e94461

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Notice on German Embassy in Juba, South Sudan and Kampala, Uganda

Image source: Violet IKong https://www.linkedin.com/posts/violet-ikong-3b7193166_saesdsudan-activity-7309312344772243456-bv2_

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Report from Deutsche Welle (DW)

By Beni van Essen 1 week ago

Why is South Sudan on edge again?

South Sudan’s security situation is volatile, as civil war-time leadership divisions deepen.

The UN has expressed concern, regional mediators are scrambling and a US evacuation is underway.

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/why-is-south-sudan-on-edge-again/ar-AA1AMtRL

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South Sudan Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala: Our people ‘on brink of destitution, slowly perishing’

"THE country, South Sudan, seems to be going round in circles from one calamity to the next and back. The saddest reality is our inability to overcome the effects of these calamities and cushion our people against them." He [Bishop Kussala] said that unless these issues are addressed, he fears his people will not survive, “especially because the majority of the population (64%) are helpless youths who have no source of income, while most of the remaining 36% are elderly persons.” Read more.

From National Catholic Register
Dated Monday, 11 March 2024 - here is a copy in full:

South Sudan Bishop: Our People ‘on Brink of Destitution, Slowly Perishing’

Bishop Hiiboro Kussala painted a grim picture of the situation of women, girls, and children in the world’s newest and youngest country, which gained independence from Sudan in July 2011.

Photo: A camp for Internally Displaced Persons in Renk, South Sudan. (Credit:   Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development)

The people of God in South Sudan are in urgent need of external support, the president of the Integral Human Development Commission of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SCBC) has said.

In a March 8 letter addressed to “the head of Caritas network, people of goodwill, and the international community,” Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala described the desperate situation of his compatriots, who he says are “on the brink of destitution” and are “slowly perishing” amid challenges occasioned by violent conflicts and COVID-19.

“Our people continue to suffer the effects of complex emergencies, which are still being experienced in many parts of the country, including those parts that had previously been peaceful,” Bishop Hiiboro Kussala said in his three-page letter dated March 8.

The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) “has increased tremendously across the country,” he said, adding that these are South Sudanese “living in deplorable conditions and are starving.”

The bishop, who leads South Sudan’s Diocese of Tombura-Yambia, highlighted the fact that “women, children, the aged, and people living with disabilities” are bearing the brunt of the conditions in the East-Central African nation.

Bishop Hiiboro Kussala painted a grim picture of the situation of women, girls, and children in the world’s newest and youngest country, which gained independence from Sudan in July 2011. 

“Consider the South Sudanese mother who watches her child die because of malnutrition caused by severe hunger; the young man who dies in the hospital because there is no medicine to treat him; the 9-year-old girl who, for a piece of ‘bambe’ [potato], is forced to sell her body; and the emaciated old woman who is lying inside her ramshackle hut awaiting death to take away her suffering,” he said.

“Those still living in their homesteads are equally facing starvation since most of them have had to, ironically, abandon their sources of livelihood in a bid to save their lives,” he said. “Most school children have had to drop out of school because of insecurity and fear of being forcefully recruited to serve as soldiers in the conflicts.”

These challenges are compounded by earlier negative effects of COVID-19 restrictions, Bishop Hiiboro Kussala further lamented, explaining that “South Sudan is also still struggling to overcome the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw our already fragile economy come to a near collapse.”

“COVID-19 saw many people lose their jobs and livelihoods, causing those who were previously self-reliant to become dependent on well-wishers,” he said.

The challenges of the people of God in South Sudan have worsened by the country’s “skyrocketing inflation,” the bishop noted, adding that “many people can no longer afford to buy even the cheapest of foodstuff. As a result, the poverty levels in the country have increased, with the number of families going hungry escalating.”

“The state of calamities in the country has been worsened by floods in some areas and severe drought in others,” he lamented. “The country, South Sudan, seems to be going round in circles from one calamity to the next and back. The saddest reality is our inability to overcome the effects of these calamities and cushion our people against them.”

He said that unless these issues are addressed, he fears his people will not survive, “especially because the majority of the population (64%) are helpless youths who have no source of income, while most of the remaining 36% are elderly persons.”

As president of the Commission for Integral Human Development of SCBC, which brings together Catholic bishops in Sudan and South Sudan, Hiiboro Kussala appealed for external support, imploring them to “not get tired of our knocking on your doors once again and again … because you are our only hope and therefore light at the end of the tunnel.” 

“It is no longer about the country and its leadership but about the people of South Sudan, who are slowly perishing,” the bishop said. 

In his letter, the bishop acknowledged with appreciation the support of the international community over the years. “You have been our anchor amid troubled waters, and we can only say thank you and pray that the good God may reward you in ways that only he can,” he said.

View original: https://www.ncregister.com/cna/south-sudan-bishop-our-people-on-brink-of-destitution-slowly-perishing

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