In light of reports that First Vice President Riek Machar, a long-term adversary of the country’s President Salva Kiir, has been arrested, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has urged all parties to exercise restraint.
Following rumor that Machar had been detained at his home in the capital, Juba, UMISS chief Nicholas Haysom said the nation was at risk of losing the “hard-won gains of the past seven years” if it retreated to “a state of war”.
The leaders of the nation are currently at risk of returning to a country that has already experienced widespread conflict in a statement released early on Thursday.
A return to fighting “will ravage South Sudan as well as the entire region,” Haysom continued.
A convoy of 20 heavily armed vehicles “forcefully entered” the first vice president’s residence in Juba on Wednesday and disarmed his bodyguards, according to Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army In Opposition (SPLM/IO) party.
According to the SPLM/IO, the country’s defense minister and head of national security were present in the convoy that issued the vice president’s arrest warrant.
According to a statement released by Machar’s chairman’s committee for foreign relations, Reath Muoch Tang, an arrest warrant was issued to him despite undetermined charges, according to a statement.
No legal procedures, such as revokeling his immunity, have been followed, Tang said, making this action a flagrant violation of the Constitution and the Revitalized Peace Agreement.
According to him, “the First Vice President’s arrest without the proper process threatens the stability of the country.”
A government spokeswoman could not be reached for comment right away.
The UN reported earlier on Wednesday that Vice President Machar and forces loyal to President Kiir had clashed outside the country’s capital Juba over the course of the past 24 hours.
Negotiating a peace deal stalled
In recent weeks, Kiir and Machar have been at odds with a power-sharing agreement because of tensions caused by government troops loyal to the president fighting rebels from the so-called “White Army,” which has close ties to Machar.
The petroleum minister and the army deputy head have been taken into custody by Kiir’s government in response to fighting that has erupted in the northeastern Upper Nile State since late February.
A military base and two military training facilities in the vicinity of Juba have been attacked by government forces since Monday, according to Machar’s party.
The key provision of the 2018 peace agreement, which aims to unite government and opposition forces, was the establishment of the training centers.
The South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF), a force-based militia affiliated with the Kiir-aligned army, has not confirmed any of the incidents, despite the accusation made on Monday that Machar’s forces carried out offensive maneuvers from one of the bases.
According to analysts, an 73-year-old Kiir has been attempting to ensure Machar’s succession and undermine him politically for months through cabinet reshuffles.
Soon after gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan, the youngest nation in the world, engaged in a bloody civil war with Machar, an ethnic Nuer, who was allied with Kiir, an ethnic Dinka.
Prior to the pair’s formation of a government of national unity in the wake of the conflict, which claimed more than 40 000 lives.
Many people in Juba are uneasy about the clashes and most recent political upheaval between Kiir and Machar.
Source: Aljazeera
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