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South Sudan VP Machar under house arrest, his party says

South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar addresses a news conference, as the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the country, in Juba, South Sudan April 5, 2020.Reuters

Wycliffe Muia & Ashley Lime

BBC News

South Sudan's First Vice-President Riek Machar, a long-time rival of the country's President Salva Kiir, has been placed under house arrest, his party says.

An armed convoy led by top security officials, including the defence minister, entered Machar's residence in the capital, Juba, and disarmed his bodyguards late on Wednesday, said the Sudan People's Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM/IO).

"Technically, Dr Machar is under house arrest, but the security officials initially tried to take him away," said Reath Muoch Tang, chairman of the party's foreign relations committee.

The government is yet to comment.

The UN has been warning that South Sudan is on the brink of a return to civil war following an escalation of conflict between Machar and the president that has been building for weeks.

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

UN fears war as barrel bombs dropped in South Sudan

But over the last seven years their relationship has become increasingly strained amid ethnic tensions and sporadic violence.

The SPLM/IO said Machar was detained alongside his wife Angelina Teny, who is also the country's interior minister.

"An arrest warrant was delivered to him under unclear charges," Tang said in a statement, calling the action a "blatant violation of the constitution and the Revitalized Peace Agreement".

"The arrest of the first vice-president without due 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 the world's newest nation risked losing the "hard-won gains of the past seven years" if it returned to "a state of war", following reports of Machar's detention.

"Tonight, the country's leaders stand on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict," the mission said in a statement on Wednesday.

Violations of the 2018 peace deal "will not only devastate South Sudan but also affect the entire region," it added.

The British and US embassies have scaled down their diplomatic staff and urged their citizens to leave the country while the Norwegian and German embassies have closed their operations in Juba.

The escalating tensions come amid renewed clashes between forces loyal to the two rivals in the northern town of Nasir in the oil-rich Upper Nile State.