The US State Department announced that the US has ordered all its employees performing non-commissioned functions to leave South Sudan amid tensions there in recent days that have revived memories of the bloody civil war between 2013 and 2018, reported Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
The conflict between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, in which more than 400,000 people were killed, led to the displacement of 4 million people in 5 years.
The fragile peace and power-sharing agreement concluded in 2018 has been threatened in recent weeks by fresh clashes in Upper Nile state, in the northeastern part of the country.
On Friday, a UN helicopter trying to rescue soldiers in the state came under fire. One crew member was killed and two were wounded.
A general from the South Sudanese army was also killed in the failed rescue mission, the UN Mission in South Sudan said on Friday.
Supporters of President Salva Kiir accused Machar's forces of fomenting unrest with the help of the “White Army“ - an armed group made up of young people from the Nuer ethnic group, to which the vice president belongs.
“Due to the risks in the country, on March 8, 2025 The State Department has ordered the departure of low-level U.S. government officials from South Sudan, the State Department said today.
“An armed conflict is ongoing, involving fighting between various political and ethnic groups. Weapons are readily available to the population,“ the State Department added.
Yasmine Suka, chairwoman of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, said yesterday that South Sudan had fallen into “an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress“.