South Sudan’s main opposition party has said its leader has been arrested amid warnings of renewed civil war in the world’s youngest country.
Riek Machar was “in confinement by the government”, and his life was “at risk”, opposition spokesperson Pal Mai Deng said in a video statement sent to the media on Wednesday night.
“His bodyguards were disarmed, and an arrest warrant was delivered to him under unclear charges. Attempts are currently being made to relocate him,” Mr Tang said.
He was detained after “more than 20 heavily armed vehicles, forcefully entered his residence”, according to a Facebook post by Reath Muoch Tang, the foreign relations committee chairman of the SPLM-IO party (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition).
His arrest comes after fighting in the north between an armed group allied to Mr Machar and government forces, which the UN has warned, could plunge the country back into full-scale civil war.
The head of the UN mission in South Sudan, Nicholas Haysom, reacting to news of the arrest, urged all parties to “exercise restraint and uphold the Revitalised Peace Agreement”.
SPLM-IO joined a unity government with president Salva Kiir in a power-sharing deal that ended South Sudan’s five-year civil war in 2018, in which around 400,000 people were killed.
Simmering tensions between Mr Kiir and Mr Machar’s parties turned into renewed conflict last month when the White Army, an armed group loyal to Mr Machar, stormed an army base in Upper Nile state and attacked a UN helicopter.
The government responded with airstrikes, warning any civilians in the area where the army group was based to leave or “face consequences”.
Follow our channel and never miss an update
More than a dozen people have died since the airstrikes started.
The UN warned on Monday of a renewed civil war if the leaders do not put the country’s interests first.
Read more:
Russia ‘reinterpreting’ peace deal
‘Khartoum is free’, army says
Sudan’s capital left ravaged and ruined
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
Mr Haysom said in a statement on Wednesday night that the country’s leaders “stand on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict or taking the country forward towards peace, recovery and democracy”.
Earlier this month, several of Mr Machar’s senior allies were arrested by security forces, which his supporters condemned as a “grave violation” of the 2018 peace deal.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, but the world’s youngest nation has been plagued by conflict and instability ever since.
