At least 23 people died and more than 100,000 were displaced due to clashes between opposition forces and the South Sudanese Government in the north of the country, according to local and police sources.
© AFP via Getty Images
08/11/2026
by
Lusa
Plink 23 people died and thousands fled fighting which began in early October between opposition forces and those of the South Sudanese Government in northern South Sudan, today indicated local and police sources.
Independent of Sudan since 2011, the world’s youngest country faces great insecurity, especially due to clashes between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir and those who support his main opponent and former Vice President Riek Machar, arrested since March 2025 and accused of “crimes against humanity”.
SPLA-IO, the pro-Machar forces, attacked since the state of Unity, one of its bastions, the neighbouring administrative region of Ruweng (north) three times since October 4, the last of these attacks having occurred on Thursday, declared to AFP Tony Chol Ayat, interim Minister of Information of Ruweng
At least 23 people died and 17 were injured, said Ayat, a balance sheet corroborated by two police sources.
One of the police sources also reported that “thousands of people fled their homes,” when Tony Chol Ayat initially counted “over 25,000” displaced by fighting, a number that later increased to “more than 100,000”.
“ It is SPLA-IO fighters, with the support of armed civilians, who are behind the insecurity in the area,” a resident of Ruweng told AFP. “The government concentrated forces on the front lines and rebel armies were repelled,” he added.
The spokesman for the South Sudanese army, contacted by AFP, did not want to comment on the situation. The pro-Machar forces did not respond to a request for comment.
South Sudan, an extremely poor and corrupt country, where a large part of the population has difficulty accessing basic services such as health and education, is undergoing a multiplication of ethnic-based or cattle-based deadly clashes, which the political situation still worsens.
This East African country, where Mazar and Kiir's troops fought between 2013 and 2018 during a bloody civil war, with more than 400,000 dead, will, however, organise presidential and legislative elections on 22 December.
A vote that has already been postponed several times, but which, under these conditions, “ runs the risk of triggering a war,” estimated the UN Human Rights Commission in South Sudan in October.