The United States has ordered the departure of its non-emergency employees from South Sudan following escalation of fighting in the country.
Through a travel advisory issued on Saturday, the US State Department also warned against traveling to the Horn of Africa country due to “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict”.
“Armed conflict is ongoing and includes fighting between various political and ethnic groups. Weapons are readily available to the population. In addition, cattle raids occur throughout the country and often lead to violence.
“Violent crime, such as carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings are common throughout South Sudan, including Juba. Foreign nationals have been the victims of rape, sexual assault, armed robberies, and other violent crimes,” the alert said.
The alert also cautioned journalists reporting from South Sudan, warning that reporting in South Sudan without the proper documentation from the South Sudanese Media Authority is considered illegal, and any journalistic work there is very dangerous.
“Journalists regularly report being harassed in South Sudan, and many have been killed while covering the conflict,” it said.
The U.S. government added that it has limited ability to provide emergency consular services to U.S. citizens in South Sudan.
“U.S. government personnel working in South Sudan are under a strict curfew. They must use armored vehicles for nearly all movements, and official travel outside Juba is limited.
“Due to the critical crime threat in Juba, walking is also restricted; when allowed, it is limited to a small area in the immediate vicinity of the Embassy and during daylight hours only,” it said.
The Crisis Group warns that South Sudan is slipping toward renewed conflict and political upheaval.
The situation escalated after an incident on March 4, when a Nuer militia with ties to First Vice President Riek Machar captured an army base in Nasir, a major town on the South Sudan-Ethiopia border.
Machar accuses the army, under President Salva Kiir, of launching attacks on his forces in nearby Ulang county on February 25, as well as on his loyalists in two other parts of the country’s west, the Crisis Group reports.
Consequently, President Kiir has arrested several of Machar’s top allies in response to developments in Nasir, threatening the fragile unity government, formed under a 2018 peace deal that ended the country’s five-year civil war.
