By Our Reporter
WORLD
Uganda has deployed Special Forces to South Sudan in a bid to protect the fragile government of President Salva Kiir as a tense rivalry with his deputy threatens a return to civil war in the east African nation.
Ugandan Special Forces have been deployed to Juba, the South Sudanese capital, “to support the government of South Sudan,” tweeted Uganda’s CDF, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
In another post Muhoozi confirms the arrival of UPDF troops in the Juba Airport today, Tuesday, March 11, 2025 saying, “UPDF Commandos arriving in Juba to support South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) in the current crisis. Operation ‘Mlinzi wa Kimya’ has began. God bless UPDF.”
Earlier Muhoozi had tweeted that, “We the UPDF only recognize one President of South Sudan. H.E Salva Kiir. He is our Afande even in UPDF because he is the younger brother of Mzee! Any move against him is a declaration of war against Uganda! All those who commit that crime will learn what it means.”
Tensions have been growing in recent days in South Sudan, an oil producer, after Kiir’s government detained two ministers and several senior military officials allied with Machar. One minister has since been released.
The arrests in Juba and deadly clashes around the northern town of Nasir are seen as jeopardising a 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year civil war between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar that cost nearly 400,000 lives.
After the civil war erupted in South Sudan in 2013, Uganda deployed its troops in Juba to bolster Kiir’s forces against Machar. They were eventually withdrawn in 2015.
Ugandan troops were again deployed in Juba in 2016 after fighting reignited between the two sides but they were also eventually withdrawn.
Uganda fears a full-blown conflagration in its northern neighbour could send waves of refugees across the border and potentially create instability.
Kainerugaba did not say whether the latest deployment was in response to a request from Kiir’s government or how long the troops would remain in South Sudan.
