US orders non-emergency staff to leave South Sudan as tensions rise

The United States has made a significant decision to order all non-emergency staff to leave South Sudan due to increasing tensions in the region. This decision comes in light of ongoing violence that threatens the fragile peace established by a deal signed in 2018 between President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar. This peace agreement was intended to end a devastating civil war that lasted five years and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Despite the signing of this agreement, the relationship between the two leaders has remained strained. On Sunday, the US State Department reported that fighting continues in South Sudan among various political and ethnic groups, stating that 'weapons are readily available to the population. ' As a result of the escalating risks in the country, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency US government employees on March 08, 2025. The UN human rights commission for South Sudan issued a warning on Saturday about an 'alarming regression' that could reverse years of progress towards peace. In response to the rising tensions, President Kiir has called for calm and assured the public that the country would not revert to war. However, the situation escalated further when a UN helicopter, which was evacuating members of the national army, came under fire on Friday, resulting in several casualties, including one crew member. Earlier in the week, security forces arrested the deputy chief of the army and two ministers who are allied with Machar, an action that an opposition spokesman described as a 'grave violation' of the peace agreement. These arrests followed clashes in the Upper Nile state between government forces and a militia known as the White Army, which had previously fought alongside Machar during the civil war. South Sudan, recognized as the world's newest nation, gained its independence in 2011 after separating from Sudan. However, just two years later, a rift between Kiir and Machar plunged the country into a civil war that claimed over 400,000 lives. The power-sharing agreement established in 2018 successfully halted the fighting, but many critical components of the deal, such as the creation of a new constitution, the holding of elections, and the unification of armed groups into a single army, have yet to be implemented. Sporadic violence continues to occur between ethnic and local groups in various regions of the country.