South Sudan: The Internal Turmoil

On October 13, 2025, the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan reported that approximately 300,000 South Sudanese had fled the country this year, primarily due to intensifying internal conflict. A United Nations (UN) investigator noted that the worsening political crisis was fuelling renewed armed violence, further exacerbating the already severe humanitarian and human rights situation in the country.

On September 11, 2025, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir issued a presidential decree suspending First Vice President Riek Machar from his position, pending a trial on charges including treason, murder, and crimes against humanity.

Although 'jungle raj' might have been used by the court to describe a civic crisis, it has been more widely used in public discourse to denote lawlessness during the Lalu-Rabri regime. (Image: PTI/File)

On March 26, 2025, President Kiir placed First Vice President Machar and his wife, Minister of Interior Angelina Teny, under house arrest. The detention came after the White Army overran an army base in Nasir, and government forces suffered a significant defeat, the event that marked the political crisis in 2025.

Between April and June 2025, the UN Mission in South Sudan’s (UNMISS) Human Rights Division (HRD) recorded 438 civilian victims of violence linked to key armed actors, marking a 204 per cent increase compared to the same quarter in 2024. This violence was the second leading cause of harm nationwide, accounting for 30 per cent of incidents and 29 per cent of victims. The report attributes the surge to the intensifying local conflict between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and the White Army militia in Nasir, Upper Nile, Jonglei state, which escalated into broader political tensions. Overall, 334 conflict-related incidents affected 1,518 civilians, including 198 women and 155 children – a five per cent rise in incidents and a 43 per cent rise in victims from 2024. Fatalities increased by 44 per cent (442 to 635), while injuries surged 128 per cent (297 to 676).

The South Sudan conflict in 2025 is the culmination of historical, political, economic, and ethnic tensions that have plagued the country since its independence from Sudan in 2011. Early power struggles between President Salva Kiir, a Dinka (ethnic group), and former Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer (Nilotic ethnic group), escalated into a brutal civil war (2013-2020), characterised by ethnic violence, resource disputes, forced displacement, child soldier recruitment, and widespread atrocities, leaving over 383,000 dead and millions displaced by 2018. Despite the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) and the formation of a unity government in 2020, implementation of security reforms, disarmament, and power-sharing has stalled, while subnational violence persists.

In 2025, clashes between Kiir’s SSPDF, Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO), and allied militias have intensified. In 2025, South Sudan faces intensifying armed clashes, climate-induced crises, economic collapse, and the arrival of 1.2 million refugees fleeing Sudan’s ongoing war, pushing the country toward renewed full-scale conflict. These challenges reflect a weakly institutionalised state plagued by corruption, lack of accountability, and elite exploitation of societal divisions. Violence and political repression persist, accompanied by restrictions on free expression and targeted attacks on journalists and civil society actors.

On October 16, 2025, the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan released a report titled Plundering a Nation: How Rampant Corruption Unleashed a Human Rights Crisis in South Sudan, documenting widespread abuses, including extrajudicial killings, mass sexual violence, and arbitrary detentions by state actors and militias. Earlier, in February 2025, Human Rights Watch noted renewed fighting in Nasir County between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and armed youth from the Nuer-affiliated White Army, displacing thousands.

Currently, over 2.5 million South Sudanese refugees reside in neighbouring countries, while two million remain internally displaced.

The ongoing political rift between President Salva Kiir and suspended First Vice President Riek Machar, coupled with unchecked corruption and stalled implementation of the peace agreement, threatens a return to full-scale war. The situation requires immediate, coordinated regional intervention. South Sudan risks catastrophic human rights consequences and regional destabilisation, underscoring the urgent need for the African Union and neighbouring states to act decisively to avert a preventable collapse.

Ruchika Kakkar is the Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict and Management. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.

Source: https://www.news18.com/opinion/opinion-south-sudan-the-internal-turmoil-ws-kl-9646762.html