South Sudan’s main opposition party rejected President Salva Kiir’s call for dialogue to prevent renewed civil war, citing stalled peace talks. Pal Mai Deng, SPLM-IO spokesperson, demanded the release of detained political and military leaders to prove Kiir’s commitment to talks.
At parliament’s reopening, Kiir urged unity and reconciliation, insisting the “doors of peace remain open” despite rising tensions. “The suffering of our people must not be prolonged by the continued rejection of dialogue,” Kiir said on Wednesday.
Tensions escalated after Vice President Riek Machar, Kiir’s former rival, was placed under house arrest following March attacks on army bases. Several SPLM-IO members fled into exile, fearing arrest amid ongoing military campaigns and political repression.
South Sudan’s 2018 peace deal ended a five-year war that claimed nearly 400,000 lives between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar. Deng called Kiir’s peace appeal “paradoxical and insincere,” accusing government forces of attacking SPLM-IO fighters and killing Nuer civilians indiscriminately.
“Before urging dialogue, Kiir must halt military campaigns and stop killing civilians considered anti-government,” Deng told The Associated Press. Civil society group CEPO warned Machar’s detention destabilises the unity government, making meaningful talks impossible.
Edmund Yakani, CEPO’s director, said Machar’s absence disrupts the government’s balance and day-to-day operations. Last month, the United Nations warned that the 2018 peace agreement teeters on collapse amid violence, repression, and foreign military involvement.
Yasmin Sooka, chair of the UN’s South Sudan Human Rights Commission, described the crisis as pushing the peace deal “to the brink of irrelevance.” The country’s fragile hopes for peace now hang by a thread as political divisions deepen and violence escalates.