South Sudan VP Arrest Ignites Fears of New War

Soldiers surrounded South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar’s home in the country’s capital of Juba on Wednesday after an armed group linked to him overran an army base in the country’s north, setting off fears of a new civil war, Al Jazeera reported.

Among the people detained during the fighting at the army base on Tuesday was Deputy Army Chief Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, a close ally of Machar’s.

Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol, another ally of the vice president, was arrested along with his family and bodyguards, Business Insider Africa reported.

The arrests followed clashes in the strategic northern town of Nasir between federal troops and the White Army militia, an organization primarily made up of armed Nuer, Machar’s ethnic group.

The White Army fought alongside Machar’s forces in the 2013–2018 civil war against ethnic Dinka troops loyal to President Salva Kiir.

Machar said last month that the firing of some of his allies from government positions threatened the fragile 2018 peace deal between him and Kiir.

South Sudan has faced instability since splitting from Sudan in 2011 and is struggling to implement the 2018 peace agreement that ended the civil war in which almost 400,000 people died. Elections were slated to take place last year but they have been rescheduled for 2026 due to a lack of funds.

Water Minister Pal Mai Deng, spokesperson of Machar’s SPLM-IO party, said that Lam’s detention “puts the entire peace agreement at risk.”

Ter Manyang Gatwich, executive director of the Center for Peace and Advocacy, urged the immediate release of detainees to prevent the outbreak of a full-scale war.