Germany has temporarily closed its embassy in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, due to escalating tensions that have pushed the country to the brink of civil war, the German Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday.
This follows a recent decision by South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir, to dismiss the governor of Upper Nile state, where violence has intensified between government forces and an ethnic militia, which Kiir accuses of aligning with his rival, First Vice President Riek Machar.
The renewed conflict has raised alarms that South Sudan, which gained independence only seven years ago after a brutal civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, could be on the verge of sliding back into full-scale violence.
In a statement on X, the German Foreign Ministry said, “After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is once again on the brink of civil war.
President Kiir and Vice President Machar are plunging the country into a spiral of violence.
It is their responsibility to end this senseless violence and finally implement the peace agreement.”
Nicholas Haysom, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, also expressed concerns, warning that the country is “on the brink of relapse into civil war.”
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