Initial incident , founder of the
Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition On 15 December 2013, opposition leaders Dr.
Riek Machar,
Pagan Amum and
Rebecca Nyandeng voted to boycott the National Liberation Council meeting in the Nyakuron neighbourhood of
Juba. The
Sudan Tribune reported clashes breaking out on 15 December in the Munuki neighbourhood of Juba
Juba International Airport was closed indefinitely; Kenyan airlines
Fly540 and
Kenya Airways indefinitely suspended flights to Juba after the airport closed. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed On Christmas Day, five days after his controversial publication, Adwok was arrested and held for two days. He was later detained at the Juba airport when attempting to leave the country. His passport was also confiscated. of the
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) during the civil war Foreign Minister
Barnaba Marial Benjamin claimed that those that were a part of the coup were "disgruntled" soldiers and politicians led by Machar Other arrests included those of Kiir's critics. President Salva Kiir spoke on national television on 16 December, having abandoned his signature suit and stetson for military fatigues, and said, while surrounded by government officials, that the coup had been foiled and that it was orchestrated by a group of soldiers allied with the former vice president. In a Christmas message, Kiir warned of the fighting becoming a tribal conflict. Chief Whip and MP from
Eastern Equatoria, Tulio Odongi Ayahu, announced his support for Kiir. Machar spoke for the first time since the crisis began on 18 December in which he said he was not aware of any coup attempt, but instead blamed Kiir for fabricating the coup in order to settle political scores and target political opponents. He accused Kiir of inciting ethnic tensions to achieve his ends. He also said the violence was started by the presidential guard, which was founded by Kiir and told to report directly to him instead of the military. On 22 December, Machar said he wanted to be the leader of the country and that "his" forces would maintain control of the country's oil fields.
Beginning of rebellion (2013–2014) in 2014. Three other sons who also tried to escape the violence were killed. The local
Radio Tamazuj suggested
UNMISS were absent from the streets in Juba and that president of the
UN Security Council Gérard Araud, had announced that the peacekeepers would not intervene in the fighting. The next day, witnesses reported seeing around 200 bodies being moved from a clinic in the Jebel area of Juba. though there were unconfirmed reports of several students being killed by security personnel at
Juba University. The UN announced that thousands of people had sought refuge within its compounds with 13,000 people taking refuge in its two compounds in Juba. The attack was condemned by the
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. On 10 February 2014, one of the UN compounds in Juba was surrounded by armed government troops and policemen, who demanded that the UN surrender the Nuer civilians sheltering there. About 200 employees of petroleum operators, of which the three largest were
China National Petroleum Corp,
ONGC Videsh and
Petronas, sought refuge at an UN compound in
Bentiu. This followed the deaths of 16 such workers: five workers at a field in Unity State on 18 December and the other 11 at the
Thar Jath field the next day. Government soldiers then took control of the fields and said that production continued normally. The rebels had reportedly taken over at least some of the country's oil fields amidst fears of Sudan intervening in the country. Pariang county in northern Unity is home to the Rueng Dinka—the only Dinka group in the state. Fighting broke out in Pariang on 20 December, when some SPLA troops defected to the rebels. On 24 December, an estimated 400 defectors moved southwards from Jaw, the SPLA's northernmost operating base, towards positions held by SPLA forces loyal to Koang Chuol. By 26 December, the SPLA claimed to have destroyed 37 rebel vehicles in Pariang county, which remained under their control. On 21 December a flight of three
US Air Force V-22 Osprey aircraft en route to evacuate US nationals from Bor took small arms fire from the ground, injuring four
Navy SEALs. South Sudan blamed the rebels for the incident. A second evacuation attempt by four UN and civilian helicopters succeeded in evacuating about 15 US nationals, Sudanese-Americans and those working in humanitarian operations, from the
United Nations base in Bor on 22 December. Although the base was surrounded by 2,000 armed youths, a rebel commander had promised safe passage for the evacuation. In total 380 officials and private citizens as well as about 300 foreign citizens were flown to
Nairobi. The United States military announced a repositioning of its forces in Africa to prepare for possible further evacuations as the United Nations warned of the planned strikes. Many of these reports have come from the hundreds of foreign oil company employees gathered at the airport to leave. Five Ugandan and ten Kenyan citizens were also evacuated from Bor and Juba. The Kenyan government said that there were 30,000 of its nationals in the country and that 10,000 had applied for emergency documents. On 22 December 2013, U.S. and Nigerian envoys were on their way to Juba to try to negotiate a solution. Machar said that the rebel side was ready for talks that could possibly occur in
Ethiopia. He said he wanted free and fair elections and that it is best if Kiir leaves. His conditions for talks were that his "comrades", including Rebecca Garang and Pagan Amum, be released from detention to be evacuated to Addis Ababa. Information minister Makuei said those involved in the coup would not be released and dismissed claims that the rebels had taken the major oil fields. and over 1,000 people sought refuge in the
UN base. Ethnically targeted violence was also reported and the Dinka feared a repeat of the
Bor massacre. On 27 December, Machar condemned Ugandan interference and claimed Ugandan air forces bombed their positions in Bor. There was also tension at the UN compound in the city as armed fighters had entered it and about 17,000 civilians seeking protection were at the location. The UN also reported that their base was being reinforced with additional protective barriers, including the area hosting the displaced civilians. On 29 December, a UN helicopter spotted a group of armed youths from Bor but could not confirm their numbers. On 30 December, South Sudanese government troops clashed with
Nuer White Army militiamen and other rebel factions loyal to Machar near Bor. By 31 December, the rebels were close to reaching the center of Bor and by 2 January, Mayor of Bor, Nhial Majak Nhial said that the government had withdrawn from the city and Kiir declared a state of emergency in
Unity and
Jonglei states, where rebels controlled the capitals. On 4 January intense battles involving tanks and artillery were reported on the outskirts of Bor, which by this time had changed hands three times since fighting began. Rebels claimed that a South Sudanese army general has been killed in the fighting, as his convoy approaching Bor was ambushed. The SPLA brought large numbers of reinforcements bringing the total SPLA troops from Bor close to 2,000. On 24 December, fighting was reported in
Malakal, with Sudanese presidential spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny claiming that the Upper Nile oil fields were far from Malakal and secure. On 27 December, the army said it had taken back full control of
Malakal, the administrative center of
Upper Nile, a state which supplied all of South Sudan's crude oil, after fighting shut down oil fields in other areas. By February 2014, the UN compound in Malakal housed around 20,000 people who had fled the conflict. The
UNMISS reported that on 14 January heavy fighting broke out near the UN compound in Malakal with one civilian killed and dozens wounded during the battle. Civilians emptied out of the town, and at least 200 drowned when their overcrowded boat sank as they tried to flee across the Nile. On 15 January, fighting continued in the streets of Malakal with both sides claiming to control the town. 's 4th Division rebelled under the leadership of James Koang (pictured). On 20 December commander of the SPLA 4th Division, James Koang, declared himself military governor of Unity State, his forces then clashed with those loyal to Kiir resulting in the forces loyal to Kiir retreating to the barraks in Bentiu. The next day, Koang announced allegiance to Machar and declared an 'interim government' of the state with state governor Joseph Nguen Monytuel fleeing Mayom county. The soldiers loyal to Kiir retreated to Abiemnom County and were reinforced by Western Bahr el Ghazal's 5th division and the Northern Bahr el Ghazal's 3rd division to take back Bentiu.
South Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLA) militia forces, led by the Bul Nuer commander Matthew Puljang, decided to support them. By 27 December, a combined force of SSLA and SPLA seized
Mayom, 90 kilometers from Bentiu, on 29 December. Peter Dak, the rebel commander in Mayom, announced that he fled the town on 7 January. Around 8 January 2014, the SPLA forces advanced on Bentiu, which had been mostly evacuated, securing the city on 10 January 2014. South Sudanese troops retook Bor on 18 January and Malakal on 20 January. Government troops were assisted by Ugandan troops, against the wishes of IGAD who feared a wider regional conflict. Uganda announced they had joined the conflict in support of Kiir in January after previously denying it, having said the troops were only there to evacuate Ugandan nationals. On 23 January 2014, representatives of the
Government of South Sudan and representatives of
Riek Machar reached a ceasefire agreement in
Ethiopia. Three days later both sides accused each other of breaking the ceasefire agreement. The rebels accused the government of attacking the town of Leer and other rebel held positions and that the attacks were an attempt to sabotage the second round of talks scheduled for later in February. The rebels threatened to boycott the second round talks, demanding the release of four remaining political prisoners and the withdrawal of Ugandan forces. On February 18, the rebels attacked the strategic government-controlled town of Malakal and later captured it. The government claimed to have recaptured the town on the 20 March, with the rebels claiming that they had only withdrawn to the southern portion of the town. and by 19 April South Sudan's army admitted to have "lost communication" with commanders battling in Unity state. The
2014 Bentiu massacre occurred on 15 April in Bentiu when more than 400 civilians were killed mostly along ethnic lines after rebels took control of the town. Machar claimed his forces were not responsible. A mosque, hospital, and church were targeted where civilians had sought refuge from the fighting. After the fall of Bentiu,
Salva Kiir replaced army chief
James Hoth Mai with
Paul Malong Awan. (highlighted) created as part of a peace agreement between the government and the largely
Murle rebel group, the
Cobra Faction, in 2014 In May 2014, the government signed a peace agreement with the
Murle-dominated
Cobra Faction of the
South Sudan Democratic Movement, led by
David Yau Yau. As part of the agreement, a semi-autonomous area called the
Greater Pibor Administrative Area was created to increase the minority populations within its borders and David Yau Yau was appointed chief administrator, equivalent to state governor. In February 2015, a largely
Murle group, unhappy with the agreement with the government, split off from the Cobra Faction to form the
Greater Pibor Forces and declared allegiance to Machar. In April 2016,
Murle fighters in South Sudan crossed over to
Gambela in
Ethiopia and
killed more than 200 people, stole 2,000 cattle and kidnapped more than 100 children from the
Nuer tribe. On 9 May 2014, President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar signed a second ceasefire agreement in
Addis Ababa. Hostilities were to end in 24 hours and humanitarian corridors were to be opened while a permanent ceasefire was worked on. On 11 June 2014, both parties agreed to begin talks on the formation of a transitional government within 60 days and to a third ceasefire. However, the talks collapsed as both sides boycotted them, and by 16 June, the ceasefire was reported to have been violated. In August 2014, Kiir and leaders of South Sudan's neighbouring states signed a roadmap for the creation of a transitional government. Machar refused to sign, accusing the leaders of IGAD, of tilting the process in favour of Kiir.
Arms dealers sold weapons to both sides. A series of networks emerged to sell weapons with the principal sources of arms being Egypt, Uganda, Ukraine, Israel and China. In July 2014, the Chinese arms manufacturer
Norinco delivered a shipment of 95,000 assault rifles and 20 million rounds of ammunition to the government. The government asked Norinco if with was possible for them to set up a factory in South Sudan, with Norinco declining. American arms dealer,
Erik Prince, sold three Russian-made
Mi-24 attack helicopters and two
L-39 jets to the government for US$43 million. The aircraft were flown by Hungarian mercenaries with one of the mercenaries, Tibor Czingali, posting photographs on his Facebook account of bullet holes in his jet. In Spain, police arrested Franco-Polish arms dealer,
Pierre Dadak, at his luxury villa in
Ibiza. Documents found at the villa showed that Dadak had a contract with the rebels to sell them 40,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 30,000 PKM machine guns and 200,000 boxes of ammunition. In July 2014, the government's National Security Service signed a contract worth US$264 million with a Seychelles-based
shell company to buy 50,000 AK-47s, 20 million bullets and 30 tanks. The demand for weapons had a disastrous impact on the elephant population as the rebels kill elephants to sell their tusks on the black market to earn money to buy arms. The number of known elephants in South Sudan declined from 2,300 in 2013 to 730 in 2016.
John Uliny, leader of a government-aligned militia had his forces switched sides to oppose the government after Kiir announced plans to replace South Sudan's 10 states with 28 states, a move which Uliny viewed as taking land from the
Shilluk. His Shilluk militia group now called itself the 'Agwelek forces'. The SPLM-IO said they understood that the
Shilluk community wanted a level of independence and that was why they created
Fashoda State and appointed Tijwog Aguet, a Shilluk, as governor.
Peter Gadet and former SPLM-IO logistics chief Gathoth Gatkuoth, announced that they and other powerful commanders had split from Riek Machar, and rejected the ongoing peace talks, announcing that they would now fight Riek Machar's forces in addition to government forces. Gatkuoth stated he wishes for a president who was neither Dinka nor Nuer and intended to register his group as a political group called the "Federal Democratic Party" and that their forces would be called the "South Sudan National Army". The agreement established the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) responsible for monitoring and overseeing implementation of the agreement. On 20 October 2015,
Uganda announced that it would voluntarily withdraw its soldiers from South Sudan, in accordance to that peace agreement. In January 2016, David Yau Yau dissolved the
Cobra Faction of the
South Sudan Democratic Movement and joined the SPLM. In January Gathoth Gatkuoth joined with the government but was dismissed by his Federal Democratic Party for doing so. In April 2016, as part of the peace deal, Machar returned to Juba with troops loyal to him and was sworn in as vice-president. 's cathedral, where many
Fertit have sought protection during the
2016–19 Wau clashes On Christmas Eve 2015, Salva Kiir announced he was going forward with a plan to increase the number of
states from 10 to 28 and then, five days later appointed new governors who were considered loyal to him. The new borders give Kiir's Dinkas a majority in strategic locations. As the predominantly Shilluk Agwelek forces joined, in July 2016, with the SPLM-IO, which entered the peace agreement with the government, some Shilluk felt dissatisfied. The predominantly Shilluk
Tiger Faction New Forces formed in October 2015 and were led by General Yohanis Okiech. They rejected joining the SPLM-IO or the peace agreement and called for the restoration of the original 1956 borders of the Shilluk territories. By this point, the Dinka militia leaders loyal to Kiir had grown rich by confiscating cattle (still the main currency unit in rural areas) from the Nuer, giving them a vested interest in keeping the Nuer down. In South Sudan, ownership of cattle is closely tied to a sense of masculinity and a man who does not own cattle is not only poor, but also felt to lack manliness. This loss of cattle led Nuer men, to join rebel groups. Furthermore, many of the Dinka leaders, now flushed with cattle, began to push into the province of Equatoria to seize the rich farmland for their cattle herds, causing the local farmers to fight back. The British journalist Peter Martell wrote the war had started out as a conflict within the elite over control of the oil revenue, but had "evolved into anarchy, opportunism, and revenge" as the violence had acquired a momentum of its own with multiple clan leaders raising their own militias to battle over control of the cattle herds and land, struggles fought with little reference to either Kiir or Machar. Notably, the war ceased to be an ethnic struggle, instead becoming a clan conflict with Dinka and Nuer clans professing loyalty to Kiir and Dinka and Nuer clans professing loyalty to Machar. One clan leader who raised a militia, James Koach, who was nominally loyal to Machar told Martell in 2016: "I don't care what deal they sign in Juba. The deals are with the government and where is the government? They mean nothing to us and make no difference here. They took our wives and killed our children. My family's gone, so what do I care if I live or die? They took our cows. You who come from outside don't know what that means. Our cows are everything, because without them how do we survive? They are trying to wipe us out, to remove us from the earth". By 2016, it was estimated that there were at least 20,000 child soldiers fighting in South Sudan, and many experts on the subject such as the retired Canadian General
Roméo Dallaire who campaigns against the use of child soldiers warned that having so many child soldiers would have a long-term negative impact on South Sudan. When Dinka cattle herders, allegedly backed by the SPLA, occupied farmland,
Azande youth rose up into militias mostly with the
Arrow Boys, whose leader Alfred Karaba Futiyo Onyang declared allegiance to SPLM-IO and claimed to have occupied parts of Western Equatoria. A new rebel faction calling itself the
South Sudan Federal Democratic Party (different from but related to the larger similarly named rebel faction led by
Peter Gadet, Gabriel Chang and Gathoth Gatkuoth), made up mostly of
Lotuko people formed during this time due to growing perceptions of mistreatment by the "Dinka" government and took over an SPLA outpost in Eastern Equatoria. In February 2016, Dinka SPLA soldiers attacked a UN camp targeting Nuer and Shilluk who accused the government of annexing parts of their ancestral land. About a year after the peace agreement was signed, groups of Dinka youth and the SPLA targeted members of the
Fertit in
Wau, killing dozens and forcing more than 120,000 to flee their homes. As result, local Fertit tribal militias and groups allied with the SPLM-IO rose in rebellion, causing heavy
clashes in the formerly relatively peaceful
Wau State, which continued for months. soldiers near
Juba, shortly after the
clashes in the city between followers of
Riek Machar and
Salva Kiir Mayardit Violence erupted in July 2016 after an attack outside of where President Kiir and Riek Machar were meeting in
Juba. Fighting spread throughout the city. Over 300 people were killed and over 40 people were injured, including civilians. In the following week, 26,000 fled to neighboring Uganda. A spokesman for Riek Machar announced that South Sudan was "back to war" and that opposition forces based in areas of Juba had been attacked by forces loyal to the President. Helicopters and tanks were reported in several parts of Juba on 10 July. Gun battles broke out near the airport and a UN base forced the airport to close for safety reasons. Kiir and Machar ordered a ceasefire after days of intense violence. Machar fled Juba after the clashes. After a 48-hour ultimatum given by Kiir for Machar to return to Juba to progress with the peace agreement talks passed, the SPLA-IO in Juba appointed lead negotiator
Taban Deng Gai to replace Machar and the government accepted him as acting vice-president. Machar said any talks would be illegal because Machar had previously fired Gai. Machar, with assistance from the UN, went into exile, first to
Kinshasa then to Sudan and then to
South Africa, where he was allegedly kept under
house arrest. After Machar's flight, Kiir sent his soldiers to rob the Central Bank of South Sudan, and put up $5 million US dollars stored in the central bank's vaults as a reward to anyone who could kill Machar. Kiir's spokesman admitted to what had been done, claiming it was justified under the circumstances.
Rebel infighting and splits among ruling Dinka (2016–2017) in April 2016 In September 2016, Machar called for armed struggle against Kiir and in November, he said SPLM-IO would not participate in a workshop organized by the JMEC, saying that the peace agreement needed to be revised. Yohanis Okiech, who led the largely Shilluk Tiger Faction New Forces, which split from Uliny's Agwelek forces, joined the predominantly Shilluk NDM as deputy chief of general staff. In the same month, the
Cobra Faction of the
South Sudan Democratic Movement, now led by Khalid Boutros declared war against the government. On the international front, the African Union, after the Juba clashes, backed plans for the deployment of troops from regional nations with a strong mandate similar to that of the
United Nations Force Intervention Brigade that swiftly defeated the
M23 rebels in the
Democratic Republic of Congo as UN troops within the country have struggled to protect civilians. In August 2016, the UN
Security Council authorized such a force for Juba. The government initially opposed the move, claiming a violation of sovereignty. With a resolution threatening an arms embargo if it blocked the new deployment, the government accepted the move with conditions such as the troops not being from neighboring countries, claiming they have interests at stake. They also accepted a hybrid court to investigate war crimes. The US pushed for an arms embargo and sanctions on Machar and army chief
Paul Malong Awan through the Security Council, but it failed to pass in December 2016. After an independent report into
UNMISS's failure to protect civilians in the Juba clashes, Secretary-General Ban sacked the commander of the UN force Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki in November, the general's native Kenya declared that it would pull out of the key role it was playing in the peace process and withdrew its more than 1,000 peacekeepers from UNMISS before sending the troops back in with the start of the new UN secretary general's tenure. On 30 April 2017, the first batch of the Regional Protection Force arrived under Brigadier General Jean Mupenzi of Rwanda with the first phase of troops arriving in August. Among regional powers, Kiir met, in January 2017, with Egyptian president
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who also met with Kiir's ally Ugandan President Museveni. Egypt had previously rejected the
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam that Egypt said would diminish its share of the
Nile river and Ethiopian Prime Minister,
Hailemariam Desalegn had accused Egyptian institutions of supporting terrorist groups in Ethiopia. The SPLM-IO alleged that a "dirty deal" was struck between Kiir and Egypt against Ethiopia while Kiir denied any diplomatic row. The SPLM-IO accused the Egyptian Air Force of bombing their positions on 4 February 2017 while Egypt denied it. As a result of Sudan's effective counterinsurgency strategy in the
War in Darfur, the biggest rebel faction, the
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), retreated to South Sudan and became involved in mercenary and criminal activities. The SPLM-IO accused JEM as well as another rebel group in Sudan, the SPLM-North of joining the conflict on the side of Juba. As Equatoria is the agricultural belt of the country, the number of people facing starvation soared to 6 million. In November 2016, SPLM-IO claimed to have taken of the towns Bazi, Morobo and Kaljak. While the rebels were mostly in retreat in the Upper Nile front, they had gained ground on the Equatorian front where the SPLA was mostly restricted to its garrisons. This was attributed to local self-defence militias becoming increasingly integrated and the depopulation of towns resulting in the army having fewer supplies while the rebels were adapted to the bush. However, after the fall of the main rebel headquarters of Pagak in the summer, their southern headquarters in Lasu fell on 18 December 2017. In late May, Kiir declared a unilateral ceasefire, which was taken with suspicion by others as it came after the late April government offensive that retook much territory and before the rainy season that would have reduced fighting. Three days after the government retook Lasu it signed another ceasefire with the rebels. The other major front of the conflict remained the Greater Upper Nile, where government forces mostly fought
John Uliny's SPLA-IO allied Agwelek forces. In a study of casualties up to April 2018, the deaths from violence peaked between 2016 and 2017. In October 2016, the rebels attempted to take Malakal and by January 2017, fighting there had led to civilians deserting the country's second-largest city. Whilst fighting in the
Bahr el Ghazal region, pro-government militia
Mathiang Anyoor attacked
Wau killing up to 50 civilians in April 2017. In the same month, the SPLA-IO captured
Raja, the capital of
Lol State, while state governor
Hassan claimed the city was immediately retaken. A counteroffensive by the government starting in late April 2017 reversed most rebel gains, captured the capital of the Shilluk kingdom,
Kodok, from Uliny and
closed in on Pagak, which had been the SPLA-IO headquarters since 2014. In July 2017, the SPLA along with forces loyal to Taban Deng Gai took over the rebel-held town of
Maiwut. The government took over Pagak in August 2017 while the SPLA-IO still held territory in traditional Nuer areas of Panyijar Country in Unity state and rural areas of Jonglei and Akobo state. SPLA-IO forces under Machar counterattacked Taban Deng Gai's force, in an attempt to retake Pagak. (2016) An additional dimension of the conflict developed with fighting between the opposition loyal to Machar and those supporting Taban Deng, largely within the Nuer-majority former state of Unity. Gabriel Tang, who was one of the generals to have defected from Machar during the peace talks in 2015, now allied with
Lam Akol's largely Shilluk NDM and became its
chief of staff. In January 2017 Tang was killed in clashes with the SPLM-IO allied Agwelek forces led by
John Uliny, a move the SPLM-IO described as a warning to rival rebel factions. In February 2017, Deputy head of logistics, Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka resigned, accusing Kiir of ethnic bias. This led to a series of high ranking resignations, including minister of Labour Lieutenant General
Gabriel Duop Lam who also pledged allegiance to Machar. Swaka formed a new rebel group called the
National Salvation Front (NAS) in March 2017. In March 2017, Cirillo, a
Bari from Equatoria, got additional support as the SPLM-IO's Western Bahr al Ghazal commander, Faiz Ismail Futur, resigned to join the NAS while there are reports of six SPLM-IO shadow governors from Equatoria defecting to the NAS. In the same month, head of the Cobra Faction Khalid Boutros dissolved the Cobra Faction and merged it with the NAS and claimed opposition groups were in consultation to unite their ranks. In July 2017, John Kenyi Loburon, the SPLA-IO's commander of Central Equatoria state defected to the NAS, claiming favoritism towards Nuers in the SPLA-IO and then, as an NAS general in the same month, fought with the SPLA-IO in Central Equatoria in the first clashes between the two groups. By November 2017, the NAS had captured areas in
Kajo Keji from the SPLM-IO, before both groups were routed by the government. , former
SPLA army chief, rebelled against the government in April 2018 Cracks were appearing along clan lines among the ruling Dinka. Kiir's Dinka of
Warrap were in a feud with the Dinka of
Paul Malong Awan's
Aweil, who contributed the bulk of the government's fighting force in the war. Around this time, the largely Dinka
South Sudan Patriotic Army (SSPA) was formed in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, with the backing of powerful figures such as former presidential advisor Costello Garang Ring and allegedly Malong Awan. In May 2017, Kiir reduced the power of the chief of staff position and fired its powerful Dinka nationalist Malong Awan and replaced him with General
James Ajongo Mawut, who was a
Luo. Awan left Juba with most of his
Mathiang Anyoor militia while other militia members reportedly joined the SSPA. By the end of 2017, the SSPA had claimed to have captured territory around Aweil and was seen as one of the biggest threats to Juba. Awan was accused of plotting a rebellion and was detained but then released following pressure from the Dinka Council of Elders, a Dinka lobbying group. SPLM-IO rebels who were loyal to Malong Awan
raided Juba in January 2018. In April of that year, Awan announced the launch of a rebel group named
South Sudan United Front (SS-UF), which claimed to push for federalism.
2018 peace agreement and continuing conflicts Ceasefire and pre-transitional period (2018–2020) By March 2018, nine opposition groups, including the NAS, the NDM of Lam Akol, the FDP of Gabriel Chang, the
SSPA of Costello Ring and the
SSLM—but notably not including the SPLM-IO—had joined to form the
South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) to collectively negotiate with the government. The United States put additional pressure on Juba by successfully passing an
arms embargo on South Sudan in July 2018 through the UN Security Council, following their failure to do so in 2016, with Russia and China abstaining from voting this time. Additionally, with neighboring Sudan facing economic troubles and relying on revenue from transporting oil from South Sudan, the Sudanese government, with a mix of incentives and coercion, brought Kiir and the SPLA-IO to hold talks in Khartoum. In June 2018, they signed another ceasefire where they agreed to form a transitional government for the 36 months leading to national elections, to let
African Union and IGAD peacekeepers deploy in South Sudan and to have state boundaries be drawn by a commission chaired by a non-South Sudanese; this ceasefire was violated just a few hours after coming into effect, when pro-government forces
attacked rebels in Wau State. The SPLM-IO protested when the Parliament, where the Kiir's party holds a majority of seats, extended the President's term and that of other officials by three years. However, they eventually agreed to share power in what was called the "Revitalised transitional government of national unity (R-TGoNU)" with Machar to be one of five Vice Presidents and the 550 seat parliament to be divided with 332 going to Kiir's faction, 128 to Machar's group and the rest to other groups. An SSOA faction led by the NAS's Thomas Cirillo rejected the deal citing their small share in the power sharing agreement. As part of amnesty offered to groups following the peace deal, in August 2018, Brigadier General Chan Garang, claiming to lead a group of rebel soldiers from Malong's SS-UF, came back to the government along with 300 rebel soldiers in what was seen as a weakening of SS-UF. In September 2018, Kiir signed a peace deal with Machar formally ending the five-year civil war. Celebrations in Juba happened on 31 October 2018; however, there were criticisms that the peace deal failed to address the underlying issues of the conflict–the concentration of power in the hands of the president– and that the status quo will continue to produce violence. As part of the agreement, Machar was supposed to return to Juba in May to become a vice president again; citing security concerns, he asked for an extension of six months, which was accepted by Kiir. Six months later, both sides agreed to delay the formation of a transitional unity government by 100 days. The most contentious issue delaying the formation of the unity government was whether South Sudan should keep 32 or return to 10
states. On 14 February 2020, Kiir announced South Sudan would return to 10 states in addition to three administrative areas of
Abyei,
Pibor and
Ruweng, and on 22 February
Riek Machar was sworn in as first vice president for the creation of the unity government. The dissolution of parliament in order to bring a new parliament that shares power with the rebel groups, as called for by the 2018 peace deal, occurred in May 2021 after much delay. The NAS became the main antagonist of the government, clashing with the government in the Central and Western part of Equatorial province starting in January 2019, leading to about 8,000 people fleeing Yei State. The NAS and the FDP also alleged being attacked by the SPLM-IO in Upper Nile State. The government continued to import arms. In August 2019, three rebel groups who were not signed up to the peace agreement—that of Cirillo's, whose rebel group was now known as South Sudan National Democratic Alliance (SSNDA), the SS-UF of Paul Malong and the Real Sudan People's Liberation Movement (R- SPLM) of
Pagan Amum, resolved to unite their activities under "
United South Sudanese Opposition Movements" (SSOMA). In January 2020, the
Community of Sant'Egidio mediated a peace declaration in Rome between the SSOMA and the South Sudanese government.
Transitional period (2020-present) In August 2021,
Simon Gatwech Dual, made the
Kitgwang Declaration where he declared himself the new leader of the SPLM-IO. Later in the month, clashes between forces loyal to Machar and Dual led to both sides reporting dozens of deaths. In February 2025, Gatwech signed a peace agreement with president Kiir in which Gatwech's group would be integrated into the
South Sudan People's Defence Forces. Disarmament campaigns led by the government led to resistance, with clashes killing more than 100 people in two days in north-central Tonj in August 2020. Localized inter-ethnic conflict reduced during the civil war but escalated in the last few years. It was argued that political elites bound by the deal have instead channeled weapons to community militias as a proxy war while others argued the power vacuum caused by the change in number of states is what led to the violence. While cattle raiding has been going on for years, some residents stated militias were targeting civilians more such as in
one attack that killed 287 people in Uror County in May 2020. In March 2025, the White Army attacked seized Nasir in the
2025 Nasir clashes killing an army general and attacking a UN helicopter killing a UN crew member. The government responded with the help of intervention from Ugandan soldiers. In December 2025, a coalition of rebel groups, including the White Army and those loyal to Machar, captured more areas of Jonglei. and arrested him. This raised fears of a return to civil war and the UN reported that approximately 300,000 people had fled South Sudan in 2025, with about half of these refugees going to Sudan. while the government insisted that it was still valid. The
United Nations Mission in South Sudan has stated that the reported arrest "might lead the country to the brink of civil war". Earlier in 2022, the Nuer White Army had razed Shilluk villages before the government intervened with attack helicopters. == Atrocities ==