The arrest of an army general from South Sudan’s main opposition is a “grave violation” of the peace agreement that ended a five-year civil conflict, according to an opposition spokesperson.
Gen Gabriel Duop Lam was detained earlier this week, together with other key members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO).
The detainees are all supporters of Vice President Riek Machar, whose feud with President Salva Kiir triggered a catastrophic war in 2013.
On Thursday morning, Machar’s spokesperson said that the SPLM-IO did not know how their officials were or where they were being held.
President Kiir has insisted that South Sudan will not return to war, government spokesperson Michael Makuei told reporters in the capital Juba on Wednesday.
Makuei added that the opposition figures were arrested because they were “in conflict with the law.”
South Sudan is the world’s newest nation after seceding from Sudan in 2011. But just two years later, a civil war erupted when Kiir sacked his entire cabinet and accused Machar of instigating a failed coup.
After five years, with 400,000 lives lost and 2.5 million people forced from their homes, a peace deal was agreed in 2018.
But it has been fraught ever since.
Gen Lam is in charge of the military wing of the opposition party, which is yet to be integrated into the army. He was taken into custody on Tuesday.
Another Machar ally, Oil Minister Puot Kang Chol, was taken by security forces in the middle of the night.
Machar’s house in the capital, Juba, was surrounded by troops from the South Sudanese army overnight before they were later withdrawn.
All other senior military officials allied with Machar have been placed under house arrest. Reports said.
The arrests follow reports that the White Army militia had seized a strategic town in Upper Nile state close to the Ethiopian border after clashes with government troops.
The White Army fought alongside Machar during the Civil War.
Some in the army, loyal to Kiir, have accused Machar’s allies of supporting the rebels.
The country has never held an election – these are now due to take place in 2026 after years of delay.
