By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The United States has urged South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir, to release his rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, who is reportedly under house arrest.
Machar’s opposition SPLM-IO party said on Wednesday that the defence minister and the chief of national security had “forcefully entered” Machar’s residence and delivered an arrest warrant.
“We are concerned by reports that South Sudan’s First Vice President Machar is under house arrest,” Washington’s Bureau of African Affairs wrote on X.
“We urge President Kiir to reverse this action & prevent further escalation of the situation.”
The United Nations had warned that the country was on the brink of descending into another civil war after a five-year conflict that ended with a now-threatened peace pact in 2018.
Machar, accused of supporting the White Army militia, which clashed with state security forces in Nasir, Upper Nile State, this month, is being held at home along with his wife, Reath Muoch Tang, a senior SPLM-IO official said in a statement.
After the peace deal that ended the civil war between forces loyal to Machar on one side and Kiir on the other in 2018, both men have been serving in a fragile coalition government that faces constant clashes between their loyalists.
A Reuters report stated that the army was heavily deployed near Machar’s house in the capital, Juba. Some shops were closed, and there was less traffic than usual on Thursday morning.
The United Nations has warned that recent violence in Nasir, involving the White Army, a militia with historical ties to Machar, and a rise in hate speech could reignite the civil war along ethnic lines.
Machar’s SPLM-IO party denies any ongoing links with the White Army.
“It is time for South Sudan’s leaders to demonstrate the sincerity of their stated commitments to peace,” Washington’s Bureau of African Affairs wrote on X.
Political analysts say Kiir has been attempting to consolidate his position by rounding up some of Machar’s most senior allies, inviting Uganda’s army to secure the capital, and naming his adviser, Benjamin Bol Mel, as second vice president.
They suggest that Kiir, 73, is preparing Bol Mel, a businessman designated on the United States’ sanctions list for his links to construction firms accused of money laundering, to succeed him.
