ALBAWABA- South Sudanese forces have arrested two key allies of First Vice President Riek Machar—Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol and Deputy Army Chief General Gabriel Duop Lam—amid escalating tensions that threaten the country’s fragile peace deal.
Their detention comes as violent clashes intensify in the northeastern Upper Nile State, where government troops are battling rebels allegedly linked to Machar’s movement.
The arrests have raised concerns over the stability of the power-sharing agreement that ended South Sudan’s brutal five-year civil war in 2018 between President Salva Kiir and Machar.
Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth accused Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) of collaborating with the White Army, an armed youth militia from the Nuer community, which fought alongside Machar during the civil war.
Reports indicate that this militia recently seized a strategic town near the Ethiopian border after intense clashes with government forces.
Following the arrests, Machar’s residence in the capital, Juba, was surrounded by army troops, though they later withdrew. Other senior military officials aligned with Machar have reportedly been placed under house arrest.
Despite these developments, President Kiir reassured the nation that South Sudan would not return to war.
The United Nations and the African Union have warned that escalating violence in Upper Nile State could spiral out of control, threatening the country’s long-delayed path to democratic elections, now scheduled for 2026.
Analysts fear that without urgent intervention from South Sudan’s leadership, the fragile peace deal could collapse, plunging the nation back into conflict.
