An estimated 50,000 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in Gambella since March
This week saw Benjamin Bol Mel, one of South Sudan’s five vice presidents, taken into military custody under direct orders from the office of President Salva Kiir, heightening fears that the country is slipping back into a state of civil war.
Bol Mel is the second VP to be placed under house arrest in recent months. A government decree read on state television this week confirmed that Bol Mel had been dismissed from his post alongside several other prominent figures, including the governor of the South Sudanese central bank and the head of the country’s revenue authority.
Bol Mel, who has been under sanctions from Washington for almost a decade for alleged corruption, was also stripped of the rank of general he had held since September this year.
The arrest has taken many by surprise as Bol Mel is a member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party chaired by Kiir and was tipped as the favorite to succeed him as president.
The South Sudanese government has yet to provide an explanation for its actions and international watchdogs and rights groups warn the latest high-profile arrest in Juba is likely to exacerbate the violent clashes that have gripped the country for the past several months.
Tensions in South Sudan have been on the rise since March, when Kiir’s government
arrested Vice President Riek Machar.
Machar and several other individuals have since been accused of treason, crimes against humanity, terrorism, mass murder, and destruction of property. A criminal trial is ongoing, with the next session scheduled for Friday, November 21.
Machar was taken into custody on suspicion of working with the White Army, a militant organization tied to the Nuer ethnic group. At the time, Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) party denied ongoing links with the militia, which it fought alongside during the civil war that had engulfed South Sudan for years following its independence in 2011.
The brutal civil war—fought between forces loyal to Machar and his rival, President Salva Kiir, often along ethnic lines—left hundreds of thousands of people dead before it ended with the formation of a united government in 2018.
Machar’s arrest stoked violence once again and magnified fears that another round of civil war could break out in the world’s youngest country.
Last month, the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan highlighted escalating armed clashes, political detentions, and widespread human rights violations over the past seven months.
“South Sudan’s political transition is falling apart,” Commissioner Barney Afako told the UN General Assembly. “The ceasefire is not holding, political detentions have become a tool of repression, the peace agreement’s key provisions are being systematically violated, and government forces are using aerial bombardments in civilian areas. All indicators point to a slide back toward another deadly war.”
The UN estimates at least 370,000 South Sudanese civilians have been displaced by violence since March, with many more fleeing to neighboring countries including Ethiopia.
In April, local officials in the Gambella Regional State, which shares a long border with South Sudan, told The Reporter they were struggling to cope with the influx of refugees fleeing violence and air strikes.
Reports indicate that at least 50,000 South Sudanese refugees have crossed into Gambella in the months following Machar’s arrest. They add to the estimated 430,000 South Sudanese refugees already sheltered in the region at a time when funding constraints are forcing humanitarian organizations like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to scale back aid programs.
