UNMISS Helicopter Attacked in South Sudan
President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, right, and Vice President Riek Machar, left, attending a Holy Mass led by Pope Francis in Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. (Photo: AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
On Friday, March 7, a crew member was killed and two others injured on a United Nations helicopter when it was attacked by gunmen, according to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Whether the helicopter was in the air or grounded when it was attacked is not specified, though the White Army, the armed group believed to be responsible for the attack, claims the shooting began when the soldiers were preparing to board.
The helicopter was attacked in Nasir, a region in the Upper Nile state. Nasir has become increasingly violent recently as government troops, affiliated with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, have clashed with the White Army, who is believed to be allied with Vice President Riek Machar. Several of Machar’s allies were arrested earlier this week after the White Army overran the military base in Nasir, where General Majur Dak and his soldiers were left trapped in tanks and trenches as the military garrison was attacked. The UNMISS helicopter was sent to rescue them, and was part of broader UN efforts to de-escalate political tensions and prevent violence in Nasir.
In addition to the UN affiliates killed in the attack, South Sudan’s information minister claims that 27 soldiers being rescued were killed in the attack, including Dak, a figure which has not been confirmed. Nicholas Haysom, the head of UNMISS, called the attack “utterly abhorrent”, and claimed it may even constitute a war crime under international law, as the mission came at the request of the warring parties.
Peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) accompanying UNCHR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi to Bientu, South Sudan, which housed the country’s largest camp for the internally-displaced, June 18, 2017. (Photo: AP Photo/Sam Mednick)
The political tensions in South Sudan have sharply increased recently. Kiir and Machar have an already tumultuous relationship built on distrust, and their political rivalry greatly threatens the stability of peace in South Sudan. A Revitalized Peace Agreement was signed by the two men in 2018, ending a five-year civil war in which more than 400,000 people were killed. The country fell into civil war in December 2013, just two years after its independence from Sudan was formalized, when forces loyal to Kiir started battling Machar loyalists.
The agreement, a power-sharing agreement that established Kiir as President of South Sudan and Machar as the country’s first Vice President, was meant to lay foundations for an era of peace for South Sudan. Leading up to the helicopter attack, Kiir angered Machar’s party by firing officials viewed as loyal to Machar, including South Sudan’s minister for peace-building, Stephen Par Kuol.
The attack has increased already strong fears from the rest of the world of another civil war in South Sudan. Alan Boswell, an expert on South Sudan at the International Crisis Group, has warned that South Sudan is “slipping rapidly toward full-blown war”, and added that “large-scale ethnic massacres” as well as a larger war involving neighboring Sudan is an imminent threat. Since the 2018 Peace Agreement the international community, including the United States, have tried to push Kiir and Machar towards permanent resolution of their differences, driven greatly by the fear of another brutal war.