(Reuters) – South Sudan’s main opposition faction on Monday called on its fighters to advance toward the capital, Juba, after seizing control of a strategic town last week.
It remains unclear whether the Sudan People’s Liberation Army–in Opposition (SPLA-IO)—which battled forces loyal to President Salva Kiir during the country’s civil war from 2013 to 2018—has the capability to mount a credible threat to the capital.
However, the call marks a sharp escalation in the rebel movement’s rhetoric and ambitions following months of fierce clashes across the country, which the United Nations has described as the most widespread violence since 2017.
Last week, SPLA-IO fighters captured Pagot, a strategic town more than 300 kilometers north of Juba, after intense fighting in northern Jonglei State. The advance places the state capital Bor within close proximity of rebel forces.
In a statement, Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel, the SPLA-IO spokesperson, said the faction’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Wesley Williby Samson, had ordered forces “to move on Juba from all directions across South Sudan and overthrow the anti-peace regime there.”
A spokesperson for the South Sudanese army declined to comment, and government representatives were not immediately reachable.
During the 2013–2018 conflict, forces loyal to President Kiir fought against troops supporting his then–deputy Riek Machar in a war largely driven by ethnic divisions, which claimed an estimated 400,000 lives. A 2018 peace agreement significantly reduced nationwide fighting, though localized clashes have persisted.
Renewed heavy fighting erupted last year after an ethnic militia with long-standing ties to the SPLA-IO raided an army base in Nasir, in the country’s northeast.
The government later arrested Riek Machar, who had returned as Vice President under the peace deal, charging him with treason and crimes against humanity over alleged involvement in the Nasir incident—charges he denied in court.
Paul Deng Paul, a civil society activist in Jonglei State, told reporters that ongoing fighting has displaced large numbers of civilians, many of whom have fled into swampy, uninhabitable areas to escape violence.
The UN Human Rights Commission in South Sudan has condemned what it described as the “deliberate sabotage” of the 2018 peace agreement, citing among other abuses indiscriminate aerial bombardments.
