from RAJI BASHIR in Khartoum, Sudan
Sudan Bureau
KHARTOUM, (CAJ News) – MONTHS of clashes between President Salva Kiir’s forces and those loyal to the first vice-president, Riek Machar, have stoked fears of a return to the civil war that ended in 2018 in South Sudan.
Tempers fled after Machar was arrested in March.
The 2018 peace process has looked increasingly brittle as Kiir’s allies have accused Machar’s allies of agitating unrest in Nasir County and Upper Nile State, in collaboration with the so-called White Army, a loose band of ethnic Nuer armed youths.
Recently, at least seven people were killed and 20 injured in an attack on old-Fangak, a town in the greater Upper Nile region.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), reports that the attack has destroyed its last remaining run, hospital and pharmacy and hit the adjacent market.
“We are still assessing the full extent of the damage and the impact on our ability to provide care, but this attack clearly means people will now be even further cut off from receiving lifesaving treatment,” said Mamman Mustapha, MSF head of mission in South Sudan.
In a joint statement, the embassies of Canada, European Union, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway and the United States expressed their concern about the severely worsening political and security situation in South Sudan.
They stated the situation was “in ways not seen since 2018.”
That time, the civilian war claimed some 400 000 lives.
South Sudan has been independent since 2011 but plunged into a civil war two years later.
Since last October, the country has reported 40 000 cholera cases and 694 fatalities, including in counties hosting new arrivals from neighbouring Sudan.
– CAJ News