An attack on a U.N. helicopter has highlighted rising tensions in the world’s youngest country, where a seven-year-old peace deal looks ever more fragile.
The world’s youngest nation faces the threat of war yet again.
This month, a United Nations helicopter was attacked during an evacuation mission in a remote area in South Sudan, with one member of its crew killed and two others seriously injured. The flight was rescuing wounded government soldiers who had clashed with an armed group in Upper Nile State in the northeast. A day later, the United States said it was removing all nonemergency government employees from the country, citing security threats.
The attack underscored the shaky stability of the East African nation, almost a decade and a half after it gained independence amid hope and fanfare. The latest clashes, and the preceding political tensions, have regional observers fearing the collapse of a peace deal that was agreed on seven years ago.
Here’s what to know.
The main parties involved in the latest clashes are the South Sudanese national military, under the government of President Salva Kiir, and an opposition force known as the White Army, which is believed to be allied with Vice President Riek Machar.
Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar led the two warring sides of the civil war that broke out in 2013, ending with a fragile peace agreement in 2018. The deal demilitarized the capital, Juba, moved to ensure that both sides shared earnings from oil exports and returned Mr. Machar as vice president.
Yet deep-seated political and ethnic tensions have endured, as have militias and armed factions with shifting loyalties. Clashes are frequently characterized by interethnic violence, particularly between Mr. Kiir’s Dinka and Mr. Machar’s Nuer ethnic groups. Recurring violence has precipitated large-scale displacement, plunged the country into economic free-fall and sharply raised the price of food and fuel.
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