The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) says its peacekeepers have stepped up their presence around and inside displacement camps to provide additional security, amid growing fears that the peace agreement will collapse and South Sudan will slide back into war. Meanwhile, high-level political negotiations are underway to convince the country's leaders to avoid the outbreak of a new war, as fighting continues around Ulang in Upper Nile State.
After South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, the country was supposed to hold its first elections in 2015, but civil war broke out in 2013. Tens of thousands of people who fled violence during the brutal civil war that raged across South Sudan found refuge next to the UN peacekeeping base in the capital, Juba.
Twelve years later, many remain in the camps, unable to safely return to their original homes and dependent on humanitarian assistance. Now, they face a new threat as forces aligned with the two main parties to the Revitalized Peace Agreement clash in several locations across the country and political tensions soar in the capital.
With the signing of the peace agreement in 2018, the security situation in South Sudan began to stabilize as the parties largely adhered to the ceasefire. In 2020, UNMISS began to transition nearly all of the displacement sites that had been under formal UN protection since the war into conventional camps under the responsibility of the South Sudanese government.
However, amid growing fears that the peace agreement will collapse and the country will relapse into war, UNMISS says it has had to intensify its presence around and within the camps, patrolling day and night to provide additional security.
According to UNMISS, Rwandan peacekeepers lead the patrols, which include military and police officers.
“Our mandate is to protect civilians. That’s the main reason why we are patrolling at night. We also want to make the displaced communities feel secure and confident through our presence,” said Lieutenant Moise Mutuyimana, commander of Rwanda Battalion III.
The patrols reportedly face some challenges, including denial of access in some areas. While recognizing the government's right and responsibility to ensure the security of its own citizens, it is also important for UN peacekeepers to be able to carry out their protection mandate, UNMISS said.
“We absolutely respect that it is the primary responsibility of the Government to protect its own civilians and acknowledge its efforts in this regard,” said UNMISS Force Commander, Lieutenant-General Mohan Subramanian.
“However, we also have a mandate to provide protection, which is even more important at a time when tensions are high. That’s why we are supplementing the Government’s efforts by patrolling critical areas, including displacement camps.”
The UN Mission says protection is just one part of UNMISS' efforts to help resolve the tensions, as its leaders are also engaged in political negotiations alongside regional and international partners to convince the country's leaders to resolve tensions through dialogue, cease hostilities and return to the peace deal.
In New York on Thursday, the UN reported that high-level talks are underway to try to prevent further escalation between forces aligned with the two main parties to the 2018 peace agreement from plunging the fragile country back into civil war. The meetings include South Sudan's political leaders and regional heads of state, as well as the African Union's (AU) Panel of the Wise, whose members arrived in Juba on Wednesday.
During a discussion with the AU Panel, Nicholas Haysom, the head of UNMISS, stressed the importance of urgent collective engagement by regional and international partners to help end the hostilities, prevent a relapse into widespread violence and ensure a return to the peace agreement.
Haysom also underscored the need for the release of political detainees and for new measures to build trust and confidence between the parties.
Since March 26, South Sudan's First Vice President Riek Machar has been under house arrest and detention in Juba.
The AU Peace and Security Council has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Vice President Machar and his wife, and for the authorities to ensure the safety and health of Machar and his immediate family.
However, according to media reports, the AU Panel of the Wise has been barred by President Salva Kiir from meeting with the country's First Vice President.
With regard to security, UNMISS Force Commander Subramanian discussed options for joint UN-South Sudan efforts to normalize the security situation with the Presidential Adviser on National Security Affairs.
On Friday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Haysom remains engaged in intensive high-level political efforts to de-escalate the current tensions and convince the parties to uphold the peace agreement to which they have all agreed.
Following his meeting with the AU Panel of the Wise, the UNMISS chief called on the parties to put aside any personal interests and stressed the need to start rebuilding confidence in the peace process.
Meanwhile, UNMISS said it had received reports of renewed clashes between forces of the two main parties to the peace agreement. The fighting is taking place around Ulang in Upper Nile State.
Since February, airstrikes and violent clashes have displaced more than 100,000 women, children and men, including an estimated 80,000 within Upper Nile and some 23,000 who have fled to parts of Gambella region in neighboring Ethiopia.
“We urge restraint and again call for an immediate return to the ceasefire and the Revitalized Agreement as the only path to sustainable peace and stability,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told journalists on Friday.
The United Nations has reported that the situation in South Sudan has deteriorated significantly since early March. According to UN reports, tensions have increased due to internal conflict, particularly between forces loyal to President Kiir and those aligned with Vice President Machar.
The world body has also highlighted the fragile nature of the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement, which ended South Sudan's civil war. The civil war in South Sudan, which lasted from 2013 to 2018, claimed the lives of about 400,000 people.
Following the takeover of the Nasir military barracks in Upper Nile in early March by the White Army, an opposition-linked militia, tensions have been extremely high across the country. Vice President Machar accused President Kiir's army of launching attacks on his forces in nearby Ulang County on February 25, as well as on his loyalists in two other parts of the west.
The White Army militia, linked to Machar's forces, overran the army base in Nasir on March 4, killing soldiers and taking control of the town. The incident is part of a larger pattern of militia activity across the country, fueling the fears of a renewed civil war.
Political tensions between Kiir and Machar are running high, with several of Machar's top allies in the opposition Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) arrested, threatening the fragile unity government formed under the 2018 peace deal.
In 2018, Kiir and Machar signed the comprehensive peace agreement, which was supposed to culminate in elections in December 2024. However, in June 2024, Kiir and Machar agreed to postpone the elections for another two years. South Sudan is due to hold long-delayed general elections in December 2026, and many wonder whether the world's youngest nation will be ready.
Escalating tensions in South Sudan threaten to worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis. In 2025, an estimated 9.3 million people - 69 percent of South Sudan's total population of 13.4 million - are in need of humanitarian assistance.
South Sudan's protracted humanitarian crisis is exacerbated by intercommunal conflict, disease outbreaks, economic crisis, and the impact of the ongoing conflict in neighboring Sudan. Nearly 1.1 million people have crossed into South Sudan since the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023, and it is estimated that hundreds of thousands more will arrive in 2025.
South Sudan is also one of the most vulnerable countries to the extreme effects of climate change. Drought and flooding contribute to food insecurity. Consecutive years of record flooding have led to widespread displacement, loss of farmland and destruction of livelihoods.
The country is facing a major hunger crisis. From April to July, an estimated 7.69 million people are classified as IPC Phase 3 or higher (Crisis or worse). Of this total, 2.53 million people face critical levels of acute food insecurity - classified as IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) - and 63,000 people face catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity or IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe).
Meanwhile, nearly 2.1 million children under the age of five are at risk of malnutrition. This includes 650,000 children who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and require urgent medical attention.
In a statement on Friday, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) expressed deep concern about the heightened risk of gender-based violence, including sexual violence and forced early marriage, conflict-related sexual violence, and the disruption of essential sexual and reproductive health services.
“The escalating tensions further exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, where communities are grappling with limited or no access to essential health services including maternal, sexual and reproductive healthcare; as well as widespread food insecurity and mass displacement,” the UNFPA statement said.
“The ongoing instability threatens to derail humanitarian response, making it even more difficult to deliver critical services to those in need.”
UNFPA called on all actors to facilitate unhindered humanitarian access so that aid agencies can provide much-needed assistance, and urged the international community to step up its support to South Sudan to strengthen humanitarian efforts and ensure that resources reach the most vulnerable populations.