By Philip Buda Ladu\/UN<\/p>\n
South Sudan is dangerously close to plunging back into a devastating civil war, the head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) warned on Monday.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Speaking to journalists at UN Headquarters via video link from Juba, Nicholas Haysom cited the escalating violence, rising ethnic tensions, and deepening political rivalries.<\/p>\n The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan, painted a grim picture of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, mass displacement, and a rapidly deteriorating security situation.<\/p>\n “A conflict would erase all the hard-won gains made since the 2018 peace deal was signed. It would devastate not only South Sudan but the entire region, which simply cannot afford another war,” Haysom stated.<\/p>\n The warning comes amidst a surge in violence, triggered by attacks from the “White Army” youth militia on South Sudanese army barracks in Nasir, Upper Nile province, on March 4th.<\/p>\n Government forces responded with retaliatory aerial bombardments, including the use of barrel bombs allegedly containing accelerants, causing horrific injuries, particularly burns, to civilians, including women and children.<\/p>\n “These indiscriminate attacks on civilians are causing significant casualties and horrific injuries, especially burns, including to women and children,” Haysom said, noting that at least 63,000 people have been displaced. The deployment of Ugandan forces, at the Juba government\u2019s request, has further inflamed tensions, evoking memories of past conflicts.<\/p>\n UNMISS chief noted that political tensions are also escalating, with reports of senior officials from the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) being removed, replaced, detained, or forced into hiding. “Given this grim situation, we are left with no other conclusion, but to assess that South Sudan is teetering on the edge of a relapse into civil war,” Haysom warned.<\/p>\n Despite intensive diplomatic efforts by UNMISS and regional partners, including the African Union (AU) and IGAD, a scheduled high-level visit by IGAD foreign ministers to Juba was abruptly postponed by the South Sudanese government, a move Haysom described as \u201ca disappointing development.\u201d<\/p>\n Haysom urged South Sudan\u2019s leaders to immediately recommit to the 2018 peace deal, respect the ceasefire, release detained officials, and resolve disputes through dialogue.<\/p>\n He further called for President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar to meet and publicly reaffirm their commitment to peace.<\/p>\n “The time for action is now because the alternative is too terrible to contemplate,” Haysom concluded. Late Monday, Machar\u2019s party, the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM\/A-IO), said its military cantonment at Wunliet, around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the capital Juba, was attacked. Earlier on Monday, South Sudan People\u2019s Defense Forces spokesperson, Lul Ruai Koang, warned that Machar\u2019s forces in the area were \u201cscaling up their movements\u201d and had sent out a patrol towards army positions \u201cclearly in military formation\u201d.<\/p>\n The army was yet to confirm the later strikes.<\/p>\n \u201cThis brief message, serves to inform all media agencies that, the Office of SSPDF Spokesperson will issue a statement as soon as all relevant information is received from operational and base commanders on the ground at Nyamini and the surrounding areas including Wunliet\u201d Gen. Lul stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Philip Buda Ladu\/UN South Sudan is dangerously close to plunging back into a devastating civil war, the head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) warned on Monday. Speaking to journalists at UN Headquarters via video link from Juba, Nicholas Haysom cited the escalating violence, rising ethnic tensions,[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":34278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UN-Mission-in-South-Sudan-UNMISS-Nicholas-Haysom.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34279,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34277\/revisions\/34279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAdding to the instability, reports indicate both the White Army and national forces are mobilizing for further confrontations, with allegations of child recruitment into armed groups.<\/p>\n
\nMr. Haysom also highlighted the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech, which is exacerbating ethnic divisions. Media authority also echoed the same sentiments.<\/p>\n
\nThe main opposition (SPLM\/A-IO) said one of its army bases near the capital Juba was bombarded late Monday as the United States warned it was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by escalating violence between the rival factions.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis provocative action is a violation of the (2018 peace agreement),\u201d said Col. Lam Paul Gabriel SPLA-IO spokesperson in a statement.<\/p>\n