South Sudan in Chaos: Vice President Machar arrested under house arrest!

South Sudan in Chaos: Vice President Machar arrested under house arrest!

The South Sudan faces a new political crisis after security forces stormed the house of Vice President Riek Machar on Wednesday evening and arrested him and his wife, the Interior Minister Angelina Teny. These actions were sharply criticized by the SPLM-IO, Machar's party, that President Salva Kiir is responsible for the procedure. A spokesman for the SPLM-IO accused Kiir not to comply with agreements and not to create peace and stability in the country due to the lack of political will. The domestic political situation has noticeably pointed in the past few weeks, which leads to an internationally observed severe crisis. The Kleine Zeitung reports that four leading politicians were arrested arbitrarily on Tuesday.

The situation in the capital Juba and beyond, an escalating conflict between Machar's followers and the government troops are further complicated. Security forces not only convert Machar's residence, but also fight near the border with Ethiopia, where a militia of the nuer is fighting against the government. Violence has led to civil goals being bombed, which resulted in countless fatalities. Government soldiers blame Machar's party for the unrest, while Machar claims that President Kiir wants to disempower his followers. According to the UNMIST manager Nicholas Haysom, the situation threatens to escalate a comprehensive conflict if you do not take place immediately.

Humanitarian crisis in South Sudan

The current crisis is also accompanied by a humanitarian emergency in South Sudan, which is further intensified, in particular by the effects of the civil war in Sudan. So far, over 500,000 people have left the north to the south, many of them originally come from South Sudan. The UNHCR estimates that more than four million people could have been sold by the end of 2024, of which two million inland refugees. According to the reports of the Federal Center for Political Education , around 50 percent of the population are acute threatened by hunger and the infrastructure of the country is severely damaged.

The South Sudan, who gained independence in 2011 after decades of conflict, continues to fight with the aftermath of his civil war and internal conflicts, which are mainly shaped by unequal distribution of power and ethnic tensions. A 2018 peace agreement should be made, among other things, a division of power, but was hardly implemented. The demobilization and integration of former fighter fails due to the ongoing distrust between the parties to the conflict. Secret conversations between Kiir and Machar in the previous year did not lead to positive results, and the repeated shifts of elections that were originally intended for 2024 show the unstable political landscape in the country.

The international community has strengthened the UN peace mission in South Sudan to protect the population while pressure on the government is also exerted on the human rights to improve human rights and not to hinder humanitarian aid. In the middle of these complex challenges, there is hope for a political solution that could bring peace in this crisis -shaped region.