Oversight body says South Sudan rivals have recruited fighters, raising war fears

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JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — An international ceasefire monitor says parties to South Sudan 's faltering peace agreement have recruited new fighters and abducted children to participate in a conflict that observers have warned could widen again into civil war.

Tuesday's statement in the capital, Juba, said South Sudan’s military in June opened a recruitment drive for 4,000 forces for peacekeeping and other purposes and that it opened a new training center in August.

The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, or RJMEC, is a ceasefire monitoring body overseen by a regional bloc known as IGAD.

Its statement also said the body had received reports that all sides in the conflict have abducted or mobilized children to participate, and that combatants have engaged in sexual violence.

The reports, also shared with the U.N. Security Council, are likely to fuel concern that South Sudan's government and opposition groups are preparing for a further escalation.

Renewed fighting between South Sudan’s army and opposition fighters loyal to Riek Machar — who faces a criminal trial after President Salva Kiir said he had suspended him as his deputy — have intensified since the end of 2024.

That has raised concerns that the 2018 peace agreement ending the country’s civil war is collapsing.

That agreement also formed a transitional government intended to carry out elections once its provisions, like the integration of forces into a national army, were fulfilled. The transitional period has been extended twice, mostly recently in September 2024. International observers and analysts say many provisions remain unfulfilled.

“If the current challenges are not urgently addressed there is a high risk of reversal of all the gains already made, and may cause a collapse of the agreement altogether,” George Aggrey Owinow, the RJMEC’s interim chairman, told Tuesday's meeting.

The meeting was attended by senior members of South Sudan’s government including military officials, as well as representatives of major opposition parties and most ambassadors present in the country.

It was the first time the body had met since February after repeated meetings were cancelled, some due to security concerns.

A statement read by Anita Kiki Gbeho, the second most senior U.N. official in the country, said that civilian casualties resulting from the conflict between January and September had risen 59% compared to the same period in 2024.

Roughly 321,000 people had been displaced by fighting, and incidents affecting humanitarian access had doubled from the previous year, she said.

South Sudan's minister for cabinet affairs, Martin Elia Lomuro, downplayed fears. “I would like to assure you that your concerns are in place, but they are not going to be detrimental and derail the peace process,” he told the meeting.

Further fueling fears of war is the trial of Machar, who faces charges including terrorism and crimes against humanity. He has been under house arrest since March after a militia overran a military garrison in the town of Nasir, killing more than 250 soldiers, according to authorities.

The government alleges that Machar and others in his party incited the violence and provided funds to the militia. Machar has denied those charges and said that he took numerous steps to quell the fighting and evacuate stranded soldiers.

In court, he has called on a neutral body to investigate. RJMEC is urging Machar's release.