South Sudan opposition says it's under fresh govt military attack
The 2018 power-sharing deal, uniting President Kiir and Vice-President Machar, is unravelling as Kiir sidelines Machar.
The opposition warns civilians to evacuate conflict zones as it prepare troops for self-defence amid ongoing SSPDF aggressions.
South Sudan's opposition accused government forces of attacking one of its military positions near the capital on Tuesday as a fragile power-sharing agreement unravelled further.
The southern state of Central Equatoria, which includes the capital Juba, was split into areas controlled by the government and opposition forces under a 2018 deal that ended South Sudan's five-year civil war, in which an estimated 400 000 people died.
The agreement brought President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Vice-President Riek Machar, together in a unity government.
However, the deal has become threatened recently as Kiir moves to sideline Machar, who was placed under house arrest last month.
The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF) "attacked Panyume cantonment site from multiple directions this morning," opposition forces spokesperson Lam Paul Gabriel said on Facebook.
"They were repulsed from both fronts with heavy casualties on the attacking forces," he added in an update.
The assault was "followed by an aerial attack targeting and destroying civilians' property and public buildings in Panyume".
Gabriel called on civilians in four counties to evacuate, "to avoid being caught up in crossfire, as this aggression by the SSPDF is meant to continue making the counties... a zone for operations".
The South Sudanese army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Facing sustained attacks, the opposition forces commander directed his troops to prepare for conflict, according to another statement by Gabriel on Tuesday.
"Lt. Gen. Peter Thok Chuol hereby directs all sectors, divisions and all units of the SPLA-IO (Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition) to be vigilant and promptly defend themselves and the civilians under their control areas," he said.
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Yahoo
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- Yahoo
South Sudan took 8 migrants from the US. It wants something in return.
South Sudan has told the Trump administration that it would consider accepting many more migrants deported from the U.S., but it has some requests of its own. The East African nation has urged the Trump administration to lift sanctions on one of its top officials, according to three people familiar with the matter and diplomatic correspondence viewed by POLITICO. The people, like others in this story, were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy and ongoing negotiations. South Sudanese officials have also asked the Trump administration to walk back sweeping visa revocations for its citizens that Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued in April, to reactivate a bank account at the New York Federal Reserve that allows the country to conduct transactions in dollars and to support its efforts to prosecute South Sudan's first vice president, Riek Machar, who is being held under house arrest. The Trump administration has not agreed to any of those requests — and Juba has a steep hill to climb to improve relations with the U.S. after years of tensions amid civil war, a slide into authoritarianism and systemic human rights violations. 'South Sudan will continue to be an ally of the United States, support the policies of the United States, and especially the policies of the current president, his excellency, President Donald Trump,' South Sudanese Ambassador to Washington Santino Dicken said in an interview. 'But mostly, we would love also that our partners in the administration understand that as for the government of South Sudan, to convince its citizens freely, … we are asking the U.S. administration to lift visa restrictions on South Sudanese passport holders.' After a six-week-long legal battle, the U.S. this month completed the deportations of eight men to South Sudan, only one of whom is from that country, part of an administration-wide effort to deport thousands of people to third-party countries when their home countries refuse to take them back. The eight men have been placed in a guarded complex in South Sudan while its government works to repatriate them to their home countries, according to two of the people. The State Department has not officially requested to move more people to South Sudan, but the ongoing talks with South Sudanese officials — a delegation including the foreign minister met with senior Africa adviser Massad Boulos and other top U.S. officials earlier this month — offer a glimpse into how various governments see Trump's aggressive immigration strategy as a chance to improve standing with the U.S. and leverage their own requests. And it helps explain why the Trump administration — in its quest to find stopover nations for various asylum seekers and convicted criminals — is turning to Africa, a continent where administration officials feel they can make deals. Trump or his aides have raised the prospect of sending such deportees at every meeting with African leaders, according to one of the three people familiar with the asks, and the Department of Homeland Security this month sent five men to Eswatini, a country of 1.2 million people bordering South Africa. The administration is also in talks with Rwanda to accept asylum-seekers and other migrants who cannot return home, according to the three people familiar with the matter and a fourth person with insight into the negotiations. 'These are countries that are keen to appease the administration … because they want something back,' said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan think tank. 'So whether it is tariff concessions — or in the case of African countries, many of them are under the threat of being placed under a travel ban or their diplomats will be prevented from coming from the U.S. — these are the stakes that are all being used to get these agreements, to get these countries to accept the nationals. And they also get paid.' A White House official would not comment on the 'private discussions' with South Sudan but said administration officials meet with foreign governments regularly to 'discuss many matters.' The South Sudan deal is not a formal agreement, but the administration has transmitted written deals with Eswatini and El Salvador to Congress, according to a separate person familiar with the matter. The president and his team have made such requests of at least 15 African countries, according to media reports, including Eswatini and South Sudan, though not every leader has been as amenable as the South Sudanese. Nigeria's foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, told local outlet Channels Television this month that African countries are under 'considerable pressure' to accept deported Venezuelans, 'some straight out of prison.' 'It will be difficult for a country like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners,' he said. 'We have enough problems of our own,' noting the pressures of his nation's ballooning population of 230 million people. Finding countries willing to accept a significant number of migrant deportees — some of whom have been convicted of violent crimes — is crucial to the Trump administration's agenda. While both Democrats and Republicans have deported people to countries where they have no previous connection, the scale of the Trump administration's effort is without precedent. 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While the U.S. has paid El Salvador and Eswatini to accept migrant deportees, South Sudan hopes its acceptance will pave the way for the Trump administration to consider some of its requests and to improve its standing with the United States. The U.S. is the largest donor of humanitarian aid to South Sudan, which depends on the U.S. for financial support and help mediating its internal conflicts. That's why the country is likely to accept more migrants regardless of whether the U.S. heeds its requests, according to two of the three people familiar with the matter. Negotiations between South Sudanese officials and the U.S. started soon after Rubio revoked all visas for South Sudanese passport holders in April and blocked new arrivals because the country would not accept nationals expelled from the U.S. Shortly after, South Sudan agreed to accept eight deportees from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar and Vietnam as a gesture of goodwill. The Trump administration in May extended Temporary Protected Status for South Sudanese immigrants for six months, a move that conflicts with the president's sweeping efforts to strip most nationalities of temporary deportation relief and work permits. But the U.S. also recently renewed sanctions against Benjamin Bol Mel, South Sudan's de facto No. 2 official and leading contender to succeed its ailing president, over his alleged corruption and mismanagement of public resources. That could give South Sudan an extra incentive to cooperate with U.S. demands. 'Most countries that the U.S. is talking to to take migrants, they don't have a sanctioned would-be-next president,' said one of the three people familiar with the negotiations. 'They have a particular incentive in getting along with us.' In a diplomatic note from South Sudan to the U.S. Embassy in Juba dated May 12, the country agreed to accept third-country nationals from the United States and raised several matters of concern it hoped the U.S. would consider. That included 'a request for the removal of individual targeted sanctions imposed on senior government officials of the Republic of South Sudan, specially His Excellency Dr. Benjamin Bol Mel.' It also asked the U.S. to lift the April visa restrictions, invest in oil, gas, minerals and other areas in South Sudan, and the request to support the prosecution of Riek Machar, the country's first vice president and a rival of the current president, who is under house arrest. The State Department declined to comment on its request to send migrants to South Sudan but said in a statement, 'We remain unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass migration and bolster America's border security. In some cases, we might work with other countries to facilitate the removal from the United States of nationals of third countries who have no legal basis to remain here.' The State Department also called on South Sudan's President Salva Kiir to 'reverse the house arrest of First Vice President Machar and for all party leaders to return to direct dialogue,' a sign that the U.S. is holding firm. The ongoing negotiations with South Sudan come after a recent Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for eight men to be deported to Juba this month. The court's decision may have helped the Trump administration turbocharge these deals after blocking a lower-court ruling that required meaningful due process for those the administration wants to send to third countries. The aim of the Trump administration's strategy in Africa is two-fold, said Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute. Many African nations have long been reluctant to take migrant deportees, so in some cases, the administration's efforts are designed to target those countries. But the deportations also play into the Trump White House's larger strategy of deterring immigrants from illegally crossing into the United States. 'This is a small number of people, when you really think about it,' he said. 'But they get the attention, and part of it is to get the attention.' Solve the daily Crossword
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Ugandan and South Sudanese troops clash at border, killing at least 4
KAMPALA, Uganda -- Troops from Uganda and South Sudan clashed along the border between their countries in a firefight that left at least four dead, a Ugandan military official said Wednesday, as tensions flared over disputed border demarcations. Three South Sudanese soldiers were shot dead by Ugandan forces who retaliated after one of their soldiers was killed on Monday, said Maj. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, spokesperson for the Ugandan military. But Wani Jackson Mule, a local official in South Sudan's Central Equatoria state, said he received the bodies of five soldiers. The firefight occurred in a remote part of northwestern Uganda, known as West Nile, when South Sudanese soldiers crossed further into Ugandan territory, set up camp and refused to leave, according to Kulayigye. 'We had to apply force,' he said. Mule described the firefight as a 'surprise attack' by Ugandan forces in territory they consider to lie within South Sudan. A spokesman for South Sudan's military, Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang, said military leaders from South Sudan and Uganda have agreed to an immediate ceasefire to enable an investigation of the latest border clash. Sections of the Uganda-South Sudan border have been contested for years. Leaders from the two countries have set up a joint border demarcation committee whose work is ongoing, Kulayigye said. Officials from both countries have previously said that they expect to reach a firm decision in 2027. Although there have been sporadic border clashes over the years, the exchange of fire between the military allies is rare. Ugandan forces have been deployed to South Sudan to help support President Salva Kiir against forces loyal to Vice President Riek Machar. Ugandan special forces are deployed in Juba, the capital, and elsewhere in South Sudan. ___ Machol reported from Juba, South Sudan.
Business Insider
30-07-2025
- Business Insider
Trump's deportation plans get a lifeline from Africa's youngest nation, but with conditions
Since returning to office in 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified efforts to expedite the deportation of undocumented migrants, reigniting diplomatic negotiations with countries across the Global South, including South Sudan, to facilitate repatriation agreements. South Sudan has offered to accept US deportees, linked to demands including visa policy changes and economic measures. The Trump administration is yet to respond to South Sudan's set of demands in facilitating migration discussions. The U.S. has implemented third-country deportations, sending migrants to nations without prior ties, receiving criticism for this policy. One of the latest developments involves South Sudan—Africa's youngest nation—which has expressed a conditional willingness to accept deportees from the United States. According to diplomatic sources cited by Politico, South Sudan has informed the Trump administration that it would consider taking in more migrants if several demands are met. These include the lifting of sweeping U.S. visa revocations against South Sudanese citizen imposed in April by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the reactivation of a frozen South Sudanese bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and U.S. backing for Juba's efforts to prosecute First Vice President Riek Machar, currently under house arrest. The Trump administration has not yet agreed to any of the requests. 'South Sudan will continue to be an ally of the United States, support the policies of the United States, and especially the policies of the current president, His Excellency President Donald Trump, ' said Santino Dicken, South Sudan's ambassador to Washington, in an interview. 'But we also hope our partners in the administration understand that, for the government of South Sudan to freely convince its citizens [about deportation], we are asking the U.S. administration to lift visa restrictions on South Sudanese passport holders. ' Meanwhile, analysts note that South Sudan faces an uphill task in mending ties with Washington, following years of strained relations fueled by civil conflict, authoritarian backsliding, and widespread human rights abuses. United states' third country deportations The United States has intensified its use of third-country deportations, sending migrants not to their countries of origin but to nations with which they have no prior ties. Africa has become a key testing ground, with Washington striking opaque bilateral deals. The policy drew sharp criticism when five inmates—labeled 'dangerous' by U.S. officials were deported to Eswatini after their home countries refused to accept them according to a statement by Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. Eswatini however, claimed the men were only in transit and would be returned to their countries once documentation was arranged. Although many Americans support tougher immigration enforcement, a recent poll found that 58 percent oppose deportations to countries where migrants could face danger or have not received proper hearings. Legal experts and human rights advocates warn the practice may violate U.S. due process and international law. Nigeria, among the countries the U.S. has pressured, has pushed back.
