Now South Sudan is once more on the precipice of civil war. Just weeks after the Shawn Johnson visit, tensions are boiling over again between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, jeopardizing the tenuous peace secured by South Sudan’s 2018 unity government. The recent attack on an MSF hospital in Ulang, Upper Nile State, on April 14, has intensified fears of renewed conflict, displacing over 30,000 civilians and cutting off access to essential healthcare for thousands.
President Salva Kiir, who heads a competing faction in the unity government formed under the peace pact. Now, after the March 2025 arrest of Riek Machar, he is under intense scrutiny. Machar himself was under detention for allegedly attempting to foment insurrection. This latest incident has deepened the already shaky rapport between the two leaders even further. This political turmoil is the mirror of a long history of bloodshed. When Kiir fired Machar from his position as vice president in 2013, South Sudan descended into civil war. The violence led to the loss of nearly 400,000 lives before the UN-brokered, tentative ceasefire came into effect in 2018.
This tragic attack on the MSF hospital is just an example of the humanitarian disaster that is developing before our eyes in South Sudan. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) denounced a catastrophic attack. This attack crippled their ability to deliver lifesaving care to the more than 110,000 people in the region that they serve. This attack underscores the threat to the lives of health professionals and members of the population being subjected to war. It further emphasizes the grave questions surrounding government complicity in exacerbating this crisis.
Fangak County Commissioner Biel Boutros Biel has blamed the hospital attack on the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF). He is absolutely convinced that government security forces carried out this attack. He stated, “The government is using natural resources to kill its own people because of their identity as Nuer.” This statement echoes broader fears of targeted violence against certain ethnic groups in South Sudan.
The international community has responded with outrage to the escalating violence. For example, a united front by the Canadian, German, Netherlands, Norway, UK and US embassies – joined by the European Union – has gone all-in on signaling their strong support. They are calling on everyone to refrain from using violence as a form of political expression. Their joint call for restraint underscores the very real risk that the conflict could escalate even more dramatically if diplomatic efforts go awry.
The implications of this unrest are profound. As the country continues to recover from recent conflicts, it finds it hard to consolidate its political settlement, and even the hint of a return to civil conflict is a serious danger to lasting peace and security. The SPLM/A-IO, Machar’s political faction, asserted that recent developments “effectively bring the (peace) agreement between him and Kiir to a collapse.” These types of statements do not bode well for frontloading negotiations or reconciling with the house-passed bill.
