The major opposition party in South Sudan has withdrawn from the country’s peace body, citing unprovoked attacks by competing forces.
The latest armed assault, according to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition, occurred on Monday.
The party is led by Vice-President Riek Machar, who forged a unity government with his erstwhile adversary Salva Kiir two years ago.
The implementation of a peace pact aimed at ending a five-year civil war in which 400,000 people died has been hampered by ongoing tensions between the two men.
“We see no point in participating in non-productive meetings where issues are raised but not resolved.
“Our areas are under attack from our peace partner without action from those mandated to hold them accountable for such violations,” the party said in a statement.
The withdrawal exacerbates divisions between Machar’s supporters and President Salva Kiir’s supporters, which have slowed the implementation of a shaky 2018 peace accord that stopped combat between the two men.
Since its independence in 2011, South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, has been plagued by chronic instability, spending nearly half of its existence at war.
In 2013, the country was engulfed in a devastating five-year civil conflict between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar, which claimed almost 400,000 lives and forced millions of people to flee their homes.
The two men created a unity government two years ago, consolidating a peace pact reached in 2018 that ended the violence.
South Sudan has lurched from crisis to crisis since then, suffering flooding, starvation, warfare, and political wrangling as the peace agreement’s promises have failed to materialise.
