S Sudan opposition MP accuses government of ‘mapping genocide’

JUBA: A South Sudan opposition lawmaker on Sunday accused President Salva Kiir´s government of preparing a “genocide” of his rival Riek Machar´s Nuer community by classifying their homelands as “hostile”.

Months of clashes between Kiir´s forces and those loyal to the first vice-president Machar, who was arrested in March, have stoked fears of a return to civil war in the world´s youngest country, which only ended with a 2018 deal between the two sides.

Kiir´s allies have accused Machar´s forces of threatening that deal by fomenting unrest in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of ethnic Nuer armed youths in the region.

“The Nuer ethnic group, one of the largest in South Sudan, played a significant role in the liberation struggle,” read a government statement. “The community spans 16 counties... out of these, nine are considered hostile,” meaning aligned with Machar´s party, the statement added.

Nasir County was among those considered hostile. That designation was “reckless and malicious, said Reath Muoch Tang, a deputy and top official in Machar´s party who is Nuer himself. “This dangerous labeling (sic)... this sinister plan constitute(s) nothing short of a mapping for genocide against the Nuer community,” Tang said in the statement published on Facebook.