Uganda is breaking the arms embargo, according to South Sudan’s VP Machar

Riek Machar, the first vice president of South Sudan, has charged Uganda with breaching a UN arms embargo by sending armored and air force units into the nation and carrying out airstrikes.

Machar said that Uganda’s military action in South Sudan had breached a 2018 peace agreement that put an end to a bloody five-year civil war in a letter to the African Union, the United Nations, and the IGAD regional bloc.

Following a breakdown in the tense relationship between Machar and President Salva Kiir, Uganda said earlier this month that it had sent troops to South Sudan at the government’s request.

Following skirmishes between the military and the White Army militia, a group the government claims Machar supports, in the northeast of South Sudan in early March, security forces apprehended a number of Machar’s most prominent friends.

The White Army, which is primarily made up of armed ethnic Nuer who fought alongside Machar against Kiir’s primarily Dinka soldiers during the 2013–2018 conflict, is denied any continued ties by Machar’s SPLM-IO party.

The United Nations has cautioned that an increase in hate speech could lead to ethnic conflict in the nation once again.

Uganda is concerned that a full-scale conflict in its neighbor to the north, which produces oil, may cause instability and drive waves of refugees across the border.

In the letter dated March 23, Machar said, “The Ugandan forces are currently taking part in airstrikes against civilians,” and he urged pressure on Uganda to remove its troops.

A representative for Machar’s office confirmed that the letter Reuters saw was legitimate.

Military spokespersons for South Sudan and Uganda did not immediately reply to inquiries over the possible breach of the arms embargo, which has been in effect since July 2018.

According to SPLM-IO military spokesperson Lam Paul Gabriel on X, the party’s army attacked SPLM-IO fighters positioned at a camp close to the capital Juba on Monday night. The government military spokesperson, Major General Lul Ruai Koang, stated that he would make a statement after obtaining all the necessary data.

On Tuesday, Pal Mai Deng, a spokesman for Machar, announced that Lakes State intelligence personnel had detained four SPLM-IO leaders and closed their office in Rumbek, the state capital.

Requests for comment on the arrests were not immediately answered by John Kumuri, the spokesperson for the intelligence service, or Michael Makuei, the minister of information for South Sudan.

The March 11 announcement of the deployment in South Sudan was approved retroactively by Uganda’s parliament last week.

Early on Sunday morning, Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, wrote on X in a succession of since-deleted posts: “I’m tired of killing Nuer,” a reference to Machar’s ethnic group.

“Tell your leader Riek Machar to come and kneel down before ‘our’ President H.E Salva Kiir,” Kainerugaba said. Kainerugaba has a history of making provocative remarks that have caused diplomatic difficulties in the area.