FILE - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, right, and Vice President Riek Machar, left, attend a Holy Mass led by Pope Francis at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan on Feb. 5, 2023. In Dec. 2024 the country is due to hold presidential elections, the culmination of a peace agreement signed nearly five years ago, and while large scale clashes have subsided, violence in parts of the country persists, with more people killed last year than the one prior. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

U.S. Orders Non-Emergency Staff to Leave South Sudan

On Mar 10, 2025

The United States has ordered all non-emergency government employees to leave South Sudan as violence escalates, threatening an already fragile peace agreement.
Recent clashes have raised concerns about the stability of the 2018 peace deal between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar. The agreement ended a five-year civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, but tensions between the two leaders have persisted.

On Sunday, the U.S. State Department warned that fighting among various political and ethnic groups continues, with “weapons readily available to the population.”

“Due to the risks in the country, on March 8, 2025, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees,” the statement read.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission for South Sudan also sounded the alarm, warning on Saturday of an “alarming regression” that threatens to undo years of progress toward peace.

Despite the escalating violence, President Kiir has called for calm, assuring citizens that the country will not return to war.

However, tensions further escalated on Friday when a UN helicopter evacuating members of the national army came under fire, killing several people, including a crew member.

Earlier in the week, security forces arrested the deputy chief of the army and two ministers aligned with Machar. An opposition spokesperson condemned the arrests as a “grave violation” of the peace agreement.

The detentions followed clashes in Upper Nile state between government forces and the White Army, a militia that previously fought alongside Machar during the civil war.

South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, gained independence from Sudan in 2011. However, a power struggle between Kiir and Machar led to civil war just two years later, resulting in more than 400,000 deaths.

While the 2018 peace agreement halted large-scale fighting, key provisions—including drafting a new constitution, holding elections, and merging rival forces into a unified army—remain unfulfilled. Meanwhile, sporadic ethnic and local conflicts continue to destabilize parts of the country.

BBC/Patience Ameh