1 day ago
4
The German Foreign Office on Saturday said it would temporarily close its embassy in South Sudan's capital, Juba, in light of renewed and escalating violence.
While President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his erstwhile opponent Riek Machar formed a joint government of national unity in 2020, the accord now threatens to collapse.
What the German government said
"After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is once again on the brink of civil war," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced.
"President Kiir and Vice President Machar are plunging the country into a spiral of violence. They have a responsibility to stop the senseless violence and finally implement the peace agreement," Baerbock continued.
The minister said the safety of employees was the top priority.
Why is South Sudan getting dangerous again?
South Sudan, with a population of around eleven million, went through a bloody civil war — with Kiir and Machar on opposite sides — after gaining independence from its northern neighbor Sudan in 2011.
Although they agreed to form a transitional government after a 2018 peace deal, with Machar as vice president, that arrangement looks perilously close to failing.
For weeks, a militia from the Nuer ethnic group, to which Machar belongs, has been fighting government soldiers on the border with Ethiopia.
The army accuses Machar's party of fueling the conflict, while Machar accuses Kiir of wanting to depose his supporters.
While the fighting is more than 1,300 kilometers (about 800 miles) from the capital, the sparks threaten to spread to other parts of the country. Warring parties in neighboring Sudan are also threatening to intervene.
German diplomats, together with representatives from Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Great Britain, the USA, and the EU, have offered to mediate between Kiir and Machar.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse
