South Sudan Issues Arrest Warrant For VP Riek Machar

On 26 March, a convoy of 20 heavily armed vehicles forced their way into South Sudan First Vice President Riek Machar’s residence in the capital city, Juba.

The country’s Defence Minister and the Chief of National Security personally delivered an arrest warrant to Machar, who also serves as the leader of the opposition party, the Sudan’s People Liberation Movement/Army – In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO). According to a Facebook post by Reath Muoch Tang, acting chairperson for the party’s National Committee on Foreign Relations, the convoy disarmed Machar’s bodyguards. The party split in 2013 from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement that governs the country.

Tang noted the warrant contained ‘unclear charges.’ However, reports indicate Machar is under house arrest for alleged complicity in the conflict between the army and the White Army militia in the Upper Nile State in the country’s northeast.

Many have expressed concern in recent weeks that South Sudan is descending into yet another civil war that involves the support of Uganda. So far, reports say bombardments using chemical weapons have k*lled civilians. The fighting has forced 50,000 people to flee, according to the UN.

Rights groups have condemned the k*llings, and the UN has warned that arresting Machar, who many consider as wielding influence over the White Army because it fought alongside him in the 2013 civil war, threatens an already fragile peace agreement signed in 2018. The failure to implement the deal is regarded as the instability’s leading cause.

The civil war in South Sudan started in December 2013, lasted 5 years and k*lled over 400,000 people. That war and subsequent clashes have internally and externally displaced over 4 million South Sudanese. Moreover, the UN estimated in November 2024 that 57 per cent of South Sudanese will suffer acute hunger through its ‘lean season’ starting in April.

Some foreign embassies have scaled down or even closed operations amidst the recent fighting.