South Sudan’s arrest of Gabriel Doup Lam violates peace deal, opposition says

An opposition spokesman told the BBC that the arrest of an army from the main opposition of South Sudan is a “serious violation” of the peace agreement, which ended a five -year civil war.

Gen. Gabriel Dub Lam was arrested earlier this week, along with senior officials of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the opposition (Splm-Yo).

The detainees are all the allies of Vice President Rick Mashr, who sparked the rift with President Salva Kiir a devastating war in 2013.

On Thursday morning, Machar spokesman said that Spl-IO does not know how their officials or their place of detention were.

“We are doing our best to avoid any escalation with the situation, however we need our partners in peace to prove the political will to ensure that this country will not return to war again,” Book told the BBC New Ouzday.

President Kiir stated that South Sudan will not return to war.

McCoy added that the opposition figures were arrested because they were “inconsistent with the law.”

South Sudan is the latest country in the world, after its separation from Sudan in 2011. But only two years later, a civil war broke out when Kiir dismissed the entire cabinet and accused Machar of inciting a failed coup.

Five years later, with 400,000 people lost, 2.5 million people were forced from their homes, a peace agreement was agreed in 2018.

But it has been fraught since then.

General Lam is responsible for the opposition’s military wing, which has not yet been integrated into the army. It was detained on Tuesday.

The last ally of the late Puot Kang Chol was taken by the security forces in the middle of the night.

Machar’s house in the capital, Juba, was surrounded by forces from the southern Sudanese army overnight before it was later withdrawn.

All other military officials allied to MACHAR were placed under the arrest of the house, and the BBC is understood.

The arrests follow reports that the White Army militia had seized a strategic city in the Upper Nile State near the Ethiopian border, after clashes with government forces.

The white army fought along with Machar during the Civil War.

Some of the army, loyal to Kiir, accused Machar’s allies of supporting the rebels.

Machar BBC spokesman told the current fighting between the White Army and the security forces “could be avoided” if the leadership of the National Army had abandoned the peace agreement.

The United Nations and African Union warned that violence in this field could spread.

Ter Manigh, head of the Juba -based peace and call center, told Reuters that fighting in this field could threaten the peace agreement.

“The country is likely to slip into the war unless the situation is managed by the country’s high leadership,” he said.

The country has never held elections – this is now scheduled to take place in 2026 after years of delay.