His party said South Sudan’s first vice president, Riek Machar, a long-time rival to the country’s president, Salva Kiir, has been detained.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM/IO) said a senior security official, including the Defense Minister, entered Machar’s residence in the capital Juba and disarmed the bodyguard late Wednesday.
“Technically, Dr. Machar was arrested, but security officials initially tried to take him away,” said Reath Muoch Tang, chairman of the party’s Foreign Relations Committee.
The government has not commented yet.
The United Nations has been warning that South Sudan is in a time of return to civil war as conflict escalates between Machar and the president who has been established for weeks.
The two leaders agreed to end a five-year civil war in August 2018, killing nearly 400,000 people.
But over the past seven years, their relationship has become increasingly tense due to racial tensions and sporadic violence.
SPLM/IO said Machar was detained along with his wife Angelina Teny, who is also the Minister of the Interior.
“The warrant for arresting him is unclear,” Don said in a statement. The lawsuit called “a blatant violation of the constitution and a revitalized peace agreement.”
“The arrest of the first vice president without due process undermines the rule of law and threatens the stability of the country,” he added.
The UN mission in South Sudan warns that if Machar is detained, the world’s newest country has the potential to lose “hard gains from the past seven years” if it returns to “state of war.”
“Tonight, the country’s leaders are on the brink of widespread conflict,” the mission said in a statement Wednesday.
It added that violating the 2018 peace agreement “will not only destroy South Sudan, but also affect the entire region.”
British and U.S. embassies have reduced the size of diplomats and urged their citizens to leave the country, while Norwegian and German embassies have closed operations in Juba.
The escalating tensions are a new conflict between the forces loyal to the northern northern Nasir of the Upper Nile State.
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