South Sudan forces have arrested the oil minister and deputy head of the army, both allies of First Vice-President Riek Machar, as fears grew for the country’s fragile peace agreement.
The Country’s Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth says that the government is in full control.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, ended a five-year civil war in 2018 with a power-sharing agreement between bitter rivals President Salva Kiir and his deputy Machar.
Growing tensions have threatened to undo their unity government, particularly violent clashes in the northeastern Upper Nile State, where the government says there are ongoing clashes between the army and rebels backed by Machar’s forces.
Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth told reporters that a government garrison in the region was overrun by the rebels early Tuesday and that fighting was ongoing.
He accused Machar’s movement, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition of being in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of armed youths in the region from the same ethnic Nuer community as the vice-president. Since the attack, two close allies of Machar, Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol and deputy army chief General Gabriel Duop Lam, have been arrested, according to spokespersons.
