Rebels in South Sudan vow to destroy regime

South Sudan’s government is seeking support from regional countries after opposition leader and former vice president Riek Machar called for armed resistance against President Salva Kiir’s government.

The announcement comes amid heavy fighting between opposition forces in the country’s oil-rich Unity state that led several aid organizations to pull out their workers from the region. The ongoing clashes have sustained concerns that the young country is still on the brink of another civil war.

Presidential adviser on security affairs Tut Kew Gatluak said the country’s officials have approached its neighbors to ensure they don’t support the opposition forces.

“These countries (in the region) now need to continue to support the implementation of peace and isolate those who are against it,” Gatluak told Sudan Tribune on Monday. “They should not host or provide any kind of support, be it political or military support, to those against the implementation of the peace agreement.”

The government’s stance comes after Machar’s faction released a resolution after a three-day meeting in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. The faction stated it would reorganize its army to stage an attack on Kiir’s leadership “in order to bring peace, freedom, democracy, and the rule of law in the country.” Machar fled South Sudan following his replacement as vice president amid renewed fighting in the country’s capital in July.

“It’s a very worrying situation, mainly because many opposition ranks may take this up and destabilize the country further,” said Ebrahim Deen, a researcher with the Afro-Middle East Center in South Africa.

The opposing faction signed a peace deal with the government in 2013, but the agreement fell apart after several delays and renewed clashes in July.

In the country’s Unity state, fighting broke out between government troops and another opposition faction over the weekend. The faction retaliated against government troops for weeks of attacks on its forces, said Weirial Puok Baluangm, the opposition group’s press secretary. Several witnesses who fled to the United Nations camp in the state confirmed the fighting.

The World Food Program (WFP) said three UN agencies and three other aid groups last week pulled out 38 aid workers from two cities in Unity state due to the instability. The Danish Refugee Council told Reuters it temporarily relocated seven of its staff members who worked on food security and protection. South Sudan’s conflict has escalated a hunger crisis that now affects some 4.8 million people. The World Food Program said its rapid-response team already had registered nearly 25,000 people for food assistance in Unity state’s town of Jazeera before the clashes.