Machar also condemned Uganda’s military intervention in a letter to the United Nations’ secretary-general on March 23, saying it violated the terms of the peace deal.
South Sudan has never held a national election. Its current government is the result of a power-sharing agreement struck in 2018 between Kiir and Machar. The deal ended a five-year-civil war, which killed an estimated 400,000 people.
South Sudan is polarized between the majority Dinka tribe, which Kiir hails from, and Machar’s Nuer ethnic group, the second-largest in the country.
Clashes this month in the town of Nasir between government forces and a Nuer militia known as the White Army have shaken the nation’s fragile peace. Dozens have been killed in the clashes, local media reported.
On Friday, authorities confirmed Machar’s arrest, accusing him of encouraging the militia to overrun a military base in Nasir and attack a UN helicopter. The White Army, for its part, denies ties with Machar or his party.
Information minister Michael Makuei said in a statement sent to CNN that since the beginning of March Machar had been “agitating” a rebellion against the government “with the aim of disrupting peace so that elections are not held and South Sudan goes back to war.”
He cited “intelligence and security reports.”
Makuei added that Machar and “his anti-peace colleagues of the SPLM/A-IO” – which he said preached hate and tribalism – “will be investigated and brought to book accordingly.”
The SPLM/A-IO has not commented on these allegations.
What’s the world saying?
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has warned that Machar’s arrest and the unrest in the country were taking the nation “one step closer to the edge of a collapse into civil war.”
“The peace agreement is in shambles,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Friday and called for de-escalation. He added that the clashes were “darkly reminiscent” of the earlier civil wars.