General’s arrest violates South Sudan peace deal, opposition says

“We are doing our best to avoid any escalation to the situation, however we need our partners in peace to demonstrate the political will to assure that this country will not go back to war again,” Puok Both Baluang told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

President Kiir has insisted that South Sudan will not return to war, government spokesperson Michael Makuei told reporters in the capital Juba on Wednesday.

Makuei added that the opposition figures were arrested because they were “in conflict with the law”.

South Sudan is the world’s newest nation, after seceding from Sudan in 2011. But just two years later, a civil war erupted when Kiir sacked his entire cabinet and accused Machar of instigating a failed coup.

After five years, with 400,000 lives lost, and 2.5 million people forced from their homes, a peace deal was agreed in 2018.

But it has been fraught ever since.

Gen Lam is in charge of the military wing of the opposition party, which is yet to be integrated into the army. He was taken into custody on Tuesday.

Another Machar ally, Oil Minister Puot Kang Chol, was taken by security forces in the middle of the night.

Machar’s house in the capital, Juba, was surrounded by troops from the South Sudanese army overnight before they were later withdrawn.

All other senior military officials allied with Machar have been placed under house arrest, the BBC understands.