South Sudan’s main opposition party has said the detention of its leader Riek Machar has effectively collapsed a 2018 peace deal that ended five years of fighting which left hundreds of thousands dead.
It’s deputy chairperson, Oyet Nathaniel, said yesterday that the agreement “has been abrogated” and that Machar’s arrest shows a lack of political goodwill to achieve peace and stability.
South Sudan’s five-year civil war, in which 400,000 people were killed, ended in a 2018 peace agreement that brought President Salva Kiir and Machar together in a unity government. Machar is one of the five vice presidents in the country.
Tensions have been increasing between Kiir and Machar’s parties and escalated in March when the White Army, an armed group loyal to Machar, overran an army base in Upper Nile state and attacked a U.N helicopter.
The U.N. warned on Monday that the country was teetering on the edge of a renewed civil war following fighting in the north between an armed group allied to Machar and government forces.
