Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been sent to South Sudan as a special envoy to help resolve the escalating tensions between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar.
Machar, who has been under house arrest since Wednesday, is a longtime rival of Kiir, and their fragile power-sharing government is on the brink of collapse.
The situation has raised concerns globally, with the United Nations warning that the country is “one step closer to the edge of collapse into civil war.” The detention of Machar has also led to clashes between forces loyal to the two men, sparking fears of a renewed civil war.
Odinga’s mission is to help de-escalate the situation and report back to Kenyan President William Ruto, who chairs the East African Community bloc.
Ruto has also consulted with Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia to find a solution to the crisis.
The conflict between Kiir and Machar has its roots in a five-year civil war that ended in 2018, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
The 2018 peace deal brought the two men into a power-sharing government, but the administration has been slow to adopt key provisions, such as national elections and the unification of their forces.
