South Sudan spills back into conflict

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Executive Director for Africa, Mausi Segun (cajnewsafrica.com)

from RAJI BASHIR in Khartoum, Sudan Bureau

KHARTOUM, (CAJ News) – HUMAN rights groups and the international community are concerned at the deteriorating situation in South Sudan.

Killings, displacement, attacks against aid and other abuses are prevalent following renewed clashes between the government forces and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO).

These are under President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, whose peace deal had brought some stability.

Clashes have been reported parts of the Unity and Upper Nile states as a result of multiple defections and fragmentation of the opposition.

This follows the failure to enforce the security arrangements in South Sudan’s revitalised peace deal.

“The international community needs to maintain strong engagement to prevent further human rights abuses and a deterioration of the humanitarian situation,” said Mausi Segun, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Executive Director for Africa.

Civil society leaders and diplomats have warned that these cycles of violent clashes and provocations could lead to renewed conflict.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (UNCHRSS) warned that nearly all of the UN’s risk factors for atrocity crimes are present in South Sudan.

Ned Price, United States Department of State spokesperson, said his country is concerned with recent clashes between the South Sudan People’s Defense Force’s (SSPDF) and the (SPLA/M-IO).

“We call for both sides to observe fully their obligations under the existing peace agreement and note that inflammatory rhetoric is counterproductive and should cease immediately,” Price said.

South Sudan, the world’s newest country, obtained autonomy in 2011.

It spilled into conflict two years later.

A peace agreement reached in 2018 has consistently been violated.