Fears mount over escalation of conflict in South Sudan, as Uganda deploys special forces to capital amid rising tensions

Uganda has deployed special forces to South Sudan’s capital, Juba, to help President Salva Kiir “secure it,” Uganda’s military chief, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has announced.

The move comes as tensions between Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar, escalate, raising fears that their fragile peace deal could collapse, potentially reigniting conflict.

General Kainerugaba did not provide specific reasons for the deployment but warned that any move against Kiir “is a declaration of war against Uganda.”

“We shall protect the entire territory of South Sudan like it was our own,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

South Sudan’s government has not yet commented on the deployment.

Concerns over security in the country have been mounting, with the U.S. ordering the evacuation of all non-emergency staff on Saturday.

Last week, security forces arrested the deputy army chief and two ministers, all allies of Machar—an act an opposition spokesman called a “grave violation” of the peace deal. One of the ministers has since been released.

The arrests followed clashes in Upper Nile state between government forces and a militia known as the White Army, which previously fought alongside Machar during the civil war that erupted in 2013 after a power struggle between him and Kiir.

That conflict led to heavy fighting in Juba, with Kiir accusing Machar of plotting a coup—an allegation Machar denied. The war that followed killed more than 400,000 people.

A 2018 power-sharing agreement halted the fighting, but key provisions—such as a new constitution, elections, and the reunification of armed groups into a single army—remain unimplemented.