Mevlut Ozkan
18 February 2025•Update: 18 February 2025
ISTANBUL
The special representative of the UN secretary-general (SRSG) and head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has urged all parties to “demonstrate restraint and immediately restore calm.”
Between Friday and Saturday, a series of violent clashes erupted between the South Sudanese army and armed youth in Nassir town in the northeastern state of Upper Nile, injuring a UN peacekeeper, according to a UNMISS statement on Tuesday.
The UN mission is also “deeply concerned” by ongoing tensions between organized forces in the southwestern state of Western Equatoria, which resulted in deaths, property destruction, and displacement.
Nicholas Haysom, SRSG and Head of UNMISS, “strongly condemned” any violence targeting UN peacekeepers and reiterated that “such actions constitute a violation of international law.”
“The situation in both locations underscores the critical importance of the full and rapid deployment of the Necessary Unified Forces, in accordance with the Revitalized Peace Agreement,” Haysom said.
He called on parties to adhere to the peace deal and “urgently progress (on) its implementation since it remains the only route towards a permanent peace,” ahead of South Sudan’s fourth extension of its transitional period next Saturday.
A peace deal was reached between President Salva Kiir with rival Riek Machar and signed by other political parties in 2018.
Together with President Kiir, they formed a unity government in 2020, with Machar serving as the first vice president alongside four others.
A 2018 peace deal that ended a civil war allowed President Kiir to remain in charge of a transitional government, with his former rival Machar serving as his first deputy along with four others.
In 2020, South Sudan formed the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU), which had long been provided for under the Revitalized Peace Agreement signed between the government and opposition political parties to end years of ruinous conflict that has killed thousands of people and forced millions from their homes.
South Sudan, the world's youngest country, has not held a national election since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
