South Sudan: The Peace Agreement faces the risk of collapse, and a UN committee calls for a more assertive intervention to save it

The chair of the committee, Yasmine Soka – said in a statement issued today, Friday – that the renewal of violence in the country is paying the agreement “To the brink of collapse, which threatens to divide the country more.”

Ms. Soka stressed that the agreement is still the only reliable way to achieve stability, peace and democratic transition, and called on the regional partners – especially the African Union and the International Government Authority on Development (Idaq) – to increase their influence and pressure on South Sudan leaders to calm tensions, return to a meaningful dialogue, and implement the entire agreement.

Since March 2025, the Popular Defense Forces of South Sudan have launched continuous military operations, which included air strikes on inhabited areas of civilians, causing many casualties and mass displacement. The state of emergency has also been announced in several areas where the operations are still ongoing. It is reported that the Ugandan forces’ support for the armed forces of southern Sudan – as well as the government’s movement to recruit thousands of additional soldiers – has increased fear and public anxiety over widespread imminent violations.

Committee member Carlos Castrisana Fernandez said the country’s leaders have to sign the agreement, “Abandoning party agendas and working for the people.” He added: “The world cannot stand spectators while civilians bombed the opposition’s voices. The time of negative diplomacy has ended – these absurd attacks must stop.”

“The transition is blown away from foolishness and recklessness”

Political tensions in South Sudan escalated sharply with the arbitrary detention of major opposition figures that included the first deputy president, Dr. Rick Machar. The escalation of violence also deepened humanitarian crises and human rights in the country, including in the state of the Upper Nile, which is already suffering from food insecurity at the emergency level, and has become a major passage for refugees fleeing the conflict in Sudan. The committee said that the fears are increasing that if this conflict path is not avoided, “the South Sudan’s conflict with the Sudan crisis will be intertwined, which has severe consequences.”

Committee member Barney Avaku said that the rescue of the peace agreement in South Sudan “It must have a maximum priority in a disturbed area, as the Convention on the political opponents enables the partnership towards a transformative transition in the country.”

He added: “The transmission process is a work of foolishness and recklessness, which already leads to re -igniting violence, deepening insecurity, imposing more grave violations on citizens whose suffering is long, and undermining regional peace structures.”

The committee renewed its call to regional and international actors to intensify diplomatic pressure on South Sudan leaders to ensure immediate calm and the full implementation of the activated agreement. Mrs. Suka stressed that any unilateral attempts to block the transition and undermine regional peace structures “It has serious repercussions on peace and security in the Horn of Africa, and the failure to work may drown the country in the cycle of another devastating conflict.”

The committee confirmed that it continues to monitor developments closely, and documents violations and violations of the human rights committed by all parties to the conflict, including those that may rise to war crimes.