South Sudan has seen an « alarming regression » as clashes in recent weeks In the north -east of the country threatens to undo years of progress towards peace, it has warned the United Nations Human Rights Commission for the country.
The Saturday’s statement of Yasmin Sooka, President of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, in South Sudan, is in the midst of violence between the security forces supervised by President Salva Kiir and an armed group that his government has alleged is related to the first vice president Riek Machar.
The situation has jeopardized the fragile agreement of distribution of power of the couple reached in 2018 to end five years of Civil War. He has also provoked war fears in the state of the upper Nile of the country.
« We are witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard progress, » said Sooka.
“Instead of feeding the division and conflictLeaders must urgently focus on the peace process, defend the human rights of Southern citizens, and ensure a fluid transition to democracy, « said Sooka.
The President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, also stated his « deep concern » on Saturday.
In a statement, he called for an « immediate end to all hostilities ».
Rash of violence
The last flame began when it exploded in the struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and a group identified by Human Rights Watch (HRW) as « Armed Youth Militia » in Nasir County in the state of the Nile Upper in February.
Although it is still unclear what the fighting began, HRW said that forced disarmament rumors could have fed the discomfort. Since then, several clashes have taken place, with fighters using « heavy weapons », according to the United Nations mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). The agency has also reported the western state of Equatoria in the southern part of the country.
Earlier this week, South South Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth blamed the violence, in part, in the White Army, a nuer armed group operating in the Alt Nile. He accused the group of working in the league with the Machar party, the liberation movement of the people of Sudan in the opposition (SPLM/IO).
The tensions increased more early this week when Kiir ordered the arrests of two officials and several senior military officials allied with Machar. The army also surrounded Machar’s house, Put it effectively Under home arrest.
On Friday, a united nations helicopter who sought to rescue soldiers in the state was attackedKilling a crew member and injuring others to two. An army general was also assassinated at the failed rescue mission, said the United Nations mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on Friday.
Speaking at the end of Friday, Kiir urged the calm after the incident.
« The government that I direct will manage this crisis. We will keep firm on the path of peace, « he said.
« Fighting of reckless power »
South Sudan is the youngest country in the world, after gaining independence in 2011.
However, the independence movement, led by the liberation movement of the people of Sudan of Kiir (SPLM), was quickly divided. In 2013, the country had descended to the Civil War on a large scale. The fighting killed more than 400,000 people and moved more than one million others.
In 2018, the two parties signed the revitalized agreement on the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
The agreement aimed to see that the two warfare factions join their armies in one unit, write a new constitution, prepare -for the general election, organize a census and disarm all other armed groups. However, none of the reforms have been instituted.
In the statement published on Saturday, Barney Afako, another member of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in South Sudan, warned that observers attend « a return to fears of reckless power that have devastated the country in the past. »
He said that the South Sudanese had supported « atrocities, violations of rights that is serious crime, economic mismanagement and security that was always acquired ».
« They deserve breathing and peace, not another cycle of war, » he said.
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