BRUSSELS: The EU on Friday urged South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir to reverse course and defuse tensions after the arrest of his rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, sparked fears the country was tipping toward civil war.
The bloc’s executive body, the European Commission, said it was scaling back staff presence in the African nation due to the deteriorating security outlook.
“The European Union expresses its deep concern about the house arrest of First Vice President Machar. We call on President Kiir to reverse this action and defuse the situation,” commission spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.
Machar’s arrest late on Wednesday marked a dramatic escalation of tensions that have been building for weeks in the world’s youngest country.
A power-sharing deal between Kiir and Machar has been gradually unraveling, risking a return of the civil war that killed around 400,000 people between 2013 and 2018.
“Due to the deteriorating security situation in South Sudan, we have taken the decision to temporarily scale back the presence of staff within the European Union delegation,” El Anouni told a press conference in Brussels.
Juba appeared calm on Friday with shops open and people on the streets, an AFP correspondent saw.
But a heavy military presence including a tank remained outside Machar’s home, which is located just meters (yards) from the president’s home.
South Sudan — which declared independence from Sudan in 2011 — has remained plagued by poverty and insecurity since the 2018 peace deal.
Analysts say the aging Kiir, 73, has been seeking to ensure his succession and sideline Machar politically for months through cabinet reshuffles.
More than 20 of Machar’s political and military allies in the unity government and army have also been arrested since February, many held incommunicado.
EU urges South Sudan president to ‘reverse’ course over VP arrest
https://arab.news/gaj2u
EU urges South Sudan president to ‘reverse’ course over VP arrest
- The European Commission said it was scaling back staff presence in the African nation due to the deteriorating security outlook
- “The European Union expresses its deep concern about the house arrest of First Vice President Machar,” commission spokesman Anouar El Anouni said
Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado march in cities worldwide
- Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since January
CARACAS: Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado demonstrated Saturday in several cities worldwide to commemorate her Nobel Peace Prize win ahead of the prestigious award ceremony next week.
Dozens of people marched through Madrid, Utrecht, Buenos Aires, Lima and other cities in support of Machado, whose organization wants to use the attention gained by the award to highlight Venezuela’s democratic aspirations. The organization expected demonstrations in more than 80 cities around the world on Saturday.
The crowd in Lima carried portraits of Machado and demanded a “Free Venezuela.” With the country’s yellow, blue and red flag draped over their backs or emblazoned on their caps, demonstrators clutched posters that read, “The Nobel Prize is from Venezuela.”
Venezuelan Verónica Durán, who has lived in Lima for eight years, said Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize is celebrated because “it represents all Venezuelans, the fallen and the political prisoners in their fight to recover democracy.”
The gatherings come at a critical point in the country’s protracted crisis as the administration of US President Donald Trump builds up a massive military deployment in the Caribbean, threatening repeatedly to strike Venezuelan soil. Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is among those who see the operation as an effort to end his hold on power, and the opposition has only added to this perception by reigniting its promise to soon govern the country.
“We are living through times where our composure, our conviction, and our organization are being tested,” Machado said in a video message shared Tuesday on social media. “Times when our country needs even more dedication because now all these years of struggle, the dignity of the Venezuelan people, have been recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Machado won the award Oct. 10 for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Machado, 58, won the opposition’s primary election and intended to run against Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González, who had never run for office before, took her place.
The lead-up to the July 28, 2024, election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. It all increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared him the winner despite credible evidence to the contrary.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
Meanwhile, Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in what ended up being an underwhelming protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. The following day, Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term.
