April 7, 2025

Renewed threat to peace: the arrest of Riek Machar (left) has pitted his forces against the government of President Salva Kiir (right)

Credit: One Citizen Daily Newspaper

THE US government has imposed visa and travel restrictions on South Sudan, with Washington warning: “It is time for the Transitional Government of South Sudan to stop taking advantage of the United States.” 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, making the announcement over the weekend, said: “Enforcing our nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States.”

Earlier this year, South Sudan was one of a number of African countries that were put on a US visa warning list.

Washington has not been happy with the South Sudanese government for apparently dragging its feet on the issue of accepting its nationals deported from the US under Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-immigration regime.

“Every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the United States, seeks to remove them,” Rubio said.

“As South Sudan’s transitional government has failed to fully respect this principle, effective immediately, the United States Department of State is taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry into the United States by South Sudanese passport holders. 

“We will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation,” he added.

The matter has been compounded for the South Sudanese government by the threat of a renewed civil war following the arrest last month of Riek Machar by the government of President Salva Kiir

Machar is one of the country’s five vice presidents and leader of the SPLM/A-IO, which issued a statement warning that his detention “effectively brings the [peace] agreement [between him and Kiir] to a collapse”.

It added: “The prospect for peace and stability in South Sudan has now been put into serious jeopardy.”

The African Union has sent a team of envoys to Juba to try to avert another civil war in a country that has not had elections since it became independent in 2011.

Meanwhile, the UN is urgently repatriating non-essential staff from South Sudan.