The fragile political state of South Sudan has spiralled into the swift arrest of the Vice President Riek Machar according to emerging details.
“A convoy of 20 heavily armed vehicles carrying the defence minister and chief of national security entered his (Machar’s) residence in Juba,” a source told Taarifa on Thursday. Machar was arrested alongside his wife. They are technically under House arrest.
“His bodyguards were disarmed, and an arrest warrant was delivered to him under unclear charges,” said Reath Muoch Tang, an official in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army – In Opposition.
“Tonight, the country’s leaders stand on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict or taking the country forward towards peace, recovery and democracy in the spirit of the consensus that was reached in 2018 when they signed and committed to implementing a Revitalized Peace Agreement,” Haysom said in a statement on Wednesday night.
The UN has warned that South Sudan is on the brink of “widespread conflict”.
Machar was “in confinement by the government” and his life was “at risk,” opposition spokesperson Pal Mai Deng said in a video address to the media Wednesday night.
Tensions have been increasing between President Salva Kiir and Machar’s parties and escalated in March when the White Army, an armed group loyal to Machar, overran an army base in Upper Nile state and attacked a U.N helicopter.
