VP Riek Machar under house arrest, says his party

The first Vice President of South Sudan Rick Machar, a longtime rival of the country’s president Salva Kiir, has been placed under house arrest, his party says.

An armed convoy, led by senior security officials, including the Minister of Defense, entered the residence of the Machar in the capital, Juba, and disarmed his bodyguards on Wednesday on Wednesday, said the Movement for the Liberation of the People in Sudan in Opposition (SPLM/IO).

“Technical D -Macher is under house arrest, but initially security officers tried to take it away,” said Right Much Tang, chairman of the party’s foreign relations committee.

The government is yet to comment.

The UN warns that South Sudan is on the verge of returning to the Civil War after the escalation of the conflict between the Machar and the President, which has been being built for weeks.

The two leaders agreed in August 2018 to put an end to a five -year civil war, killing nearly 400,000 people.

But over the last seven years, their relationship has become increasingly harnessed against the backdrop of ethnic tension and sporadic violence.

SPLM/IO said Machar was detained with his wife Angelina Teni, who is also the Minister of the Interior of the country.

“The arrest warrant was submitted on unclear accusations,” Tang said in a statement, calling the action “a gross violation of the Constitution and the revived peace agreement.”

“The first deputy chairman’s arrest without a proper process undermines the rule of law and threatens the stability of the nation,” he added.

The UN mission in South Sudan has warned that the world’s latest nation is at risk of losing “hard-to-win profits from the last seven years” if he returned to a “state of war” after reports of a Machar.

“Tonight the country’s leaders stand on the verge of recurrence in a widespread conflict,” the mission said in a statement On Wednesday.

Violations of the peace deal in 2018 “will not only devastate South Sudan, but also affect the entire region,” he added.

The British and US embassies have reduced their diplomatic staff and call on their citizens to leave the country while the Norwegian and German embassies closed their operations in Juba.

The escalating tension appears against the background of the renewed clashes between the forces loyal to the two rivals in the northern city of Nasir in the oil -rich Upper Nile.