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Uganda’s military chief announced on Tuesday that special forces had been deployed to South Sudan’s capital, Juba, to “secure” the city following growing tensions between President Salva Kiir and his First Vice President, Riek Machar.
The move has raised concerns about a possible return to civil war.
Tensions have escalated after Kiir’s government arrested two ministers and several senior military officials linked to Machar.
One minister has since been released. The arrests, along with deadly clashes in the northern town of Nasir, have threatened the 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year conflict, which claimed nearly 400,000 lives.
Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, confirmed the deployment in a series of posts on X, stating, “As of two days ago, our Special Forces units entered Juba to secure it.”
He added, “We the UPDF (Ugandan military), only recognise one President of South Sudan, H.E. Salva Kiir … any move against him is a declaration of war against Uganda.”
Uganda previously sent troops to Juba in 2013 and 2016 to support Kiir against Machar’s forces.
The latest deployment has raised fears of further instability, but Kainerugaba did not clarify whether it was requested by Kiir’s government or how long troops would stay.
