The detention of South Sudan’s First Vice-President Riek Machar has effectively collapsed the 2018 peace deal that ended the country’s five-year civil war, his party has said.

An armed convoy led by top security officials, including the defence minister, entered Machar’s residence in the capital, Juba, and disarmed his bodyguards late on Wednesday, said the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM/IO).

Machar was detained alongside his wife Angelina Teny, who is also the country’s interior minister, the party added.

The US has urged the authorities to free Machar, while the UN, African Union and neighbouring countries have all expressed their concern.

The UN Mission in South Sudan, Unmiss, warned that the world’s newest nation risked losing the “hard-won gains of the past seven years” if it returned to “a state of war”.

“Tonight, the country’s leaders stand on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict,” the mission said in a statement on Wednesday.

The government is yet to comment on Machar’s reported house arrest.

But addressing religious leaders on Wednesday, President Salva Kiir said “he will never return the country to war”.

Tensions have been building between Machar and the president for several weeks.

The two leaders agreed in August 2018 to end the civil war between their forces that killed nearly 400,000 people. But over the last seven years, their relationship has become increasingly strained amid ethnic tensions and sporadic violence.

Earlier this week, the UN said that barrel bombs believed to contain a highly flammable liquid had been used in airstrikes during fighting between the army and a rebel group previously linked to Machar.

“The arrest and detention of H.E. Dr Riek Machar effectively brings the [peace] agreement to a collapse,” SPLM/IO deputy leader Oyet Nathaniel Pierino told journalists on Thursday.

“The prospect for peace and stability in South Sudan has now been put into serious jeopardy,” he added.

A similar warning was issued by the UN mission in the country, which said the country’s leaders “stand on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict”.

The situation has been exacerbated by the deployment of Ugandan troops and their battle tanks into South Sudan, following a request by the country’s president, according to the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan chair Yasmin Sooka.

She says this raises serious concerns over potential violations of the UN arms embargo and the growing partisan role of foreign forces, which further endangers civilians and risks regional escalation.

Tension remains high in Juba with a heavy military presence reported around Machar’s home.

“The public is in a panic,” civil society leader Edmund Yakani told the AFP news agency.

“There is a high chance of full-scale war but it will be more deadly and more violent because of [the need] for revenge,” he added.

Pierino called on SPLM/IO members and the public to remain calm as diplomatic efforts continue to resolve the situation.

AU, IGAD concerned 

The African Union (AU) and the regional body, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), are expected to send high-level delegations to Juba on Friday, to help curb the escalating crisis.

The two bodies had in separate statements earlier yesterday, expressed “deep concern” over the escalating tensions in South Sudan, while calling for “maximum restraint” and dialogue to tame rising tensions.

Expressing “deep concern” over Machar’s reported detention, AU Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf stressed the imperative for “all South Sudanese stakeholders to de-escalate the situation, uphold the spirit and letter of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), which remains the cornerstone for sustainable peace, stability, and national reconciliation.”

Youssouf urged all concerned parties to exercise maximum restraint, refrain from any actions that could exacerbate tensions, and engage in constructive dialogue.

“The well-being of the South Sudanese people must remain the foremost priority, and all efforts must be directed toward ensuring an environment conducive to lasting peace and development,” the AU statement quoted Youssouf as saying.

As an East African regional bloc, the IGAD said recent developments in the escalating political tensions in South Sudan “seriously undermine the R-ARCSS and risk plunging the country back into violent conflict.”

IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu called on all South Sudanese stakeholders “to immediately refrain from unilateral actions that violate the spirit and letter of the R-ARCSS, which remains the only viable framework for sustainable peace in South Sudan.”

“The current trajectory, if unchecked, could lead to a collapse of the transitional process and a relapse into full-scale war, with devastating consequences for the people of South Sudan and the region at large,” the IGAD chief warned.

UN, US also express concerns 

The UN mission warned that violations of the 2018 peace deal “will not only devastate South Sudan but also affect the entire region”.

The British and US embassies have scaled down their diplomatic staff and urged their citizens to leave the country while the Norwegian and German embassies have closed their operations in Juba.

The US has called on President Kiir to free his rival from the reported house-arrest, urging the two leaders to show commitment to peace.

“We urge President Kiir to reverse this action & prevent further escalation of the situation,” the US Bureau of African Affairs wrote on X.

The escalating tensions come amid renewed clashes between forces loyal to the two rivals in the northern town of Nasir in the oil-rich Upper Nile State.

South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011 following decades of struggle and a protracted peace process, has navigated a precarious path between restoring peace and enduring instability, most notably in 2013 and more recently in 2016, when widespread conflict triggered the initiation of internal peace processes.