Opposition Group in South Sudan Claims that the Arrest of a Leader Nullifies the Peace Agreement

The detention of Riek Machar, the leader of the main opposition group, has raised fears that South Sudan is on the verge of a new civil war. His imprisonment, according to his party on Thursday, has essentially shattered a 2018 peace agreement that put an end to five years of fighting that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, its deputy chairperson, stated that Machar’s detention demonstrates a lack of political will to bring about peace and stability and that the accord “has been abrogated.” Machar, a former rebel leader, serves as the first vice president of a unity administration headed by President Salva Kiir under the precarious power-sharing arrangement.

According to a representative of Machar’s party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition (SPLM-IO), a group of armed cars broke into his home on Wednesday and took him into custody. According to SPLM-IO spokesman Reath Muoch Tang, “his bodyguards were disarmed, and an arrest warrant was delivered to him under unclear charges.

Machar is charged with aiding the White Army militia, which engaged in combat with the military earlier this month in Upper Nile State.During the civil war, the two fought together, but the SPLM-IO has denied any further ties to the group.

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