Unexploded landmines continue to kill and maim indiscriminately in Syria’s northeast

After the defeat of Daesh, the SDF and its international allies were left with the daunting task of clearing landmines and other unexploded ordnance from the battlefield so that families could return to their land. (Ali Ali)
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Updated 03 April 2022
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Unexploded landmines continue to kill and maim indiscriminately in Syria’s northeast

  • Security concerns and lack of funding keep region awash in unexploded munitions, years after war ended
  • International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action is observed every year on April 4

QAMISHLI, Syria: Three years ago, the world watched as the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS battled the remnants of Daesh in the extremist group’s last territorial holdout of Baghouz.

Having once controlled an area the size of England, the terror group had been forced to retreat into an area covering just a few hundred square meters, where they dug in behind razor wire, earthworks and fields laid with thousands of landmines.

When the fighting was finally over and the last Daesh positions had been cleared, SDF morale skyrocketed and there were days of celebrations across the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

But after the guns had fallen silent, the SDF and its international allies were left with the daunting task of clearing landmines and other unexploded ordnance from the battlefield so that families could return to their land.

Years later, the work continues, hampered by security threats posed by Daesh holdouts, a lack of funding from international aid agencies, and the political complexities of the region.




An expat de-miner, near Jurniya in Syria. (Ali Ali)

On Dec. 8, 2005, the UN General Assembly declared that an International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action would be observed on April 4 each year.

Since the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, opened for signatures in 1997, 164 countries have ratified or acceded to it. In 2014, the signatories agreed to the complete the clearance of all landmines by 2025. However, these indiscriminate weapons continue to be used by state and non-state actors alike in conflict zones.

From Daesh’s final strongholds in Deir ez-Zor and its former de-facto capital of Raqqa, to areas such as Kobane, which was liberated as long ago as 2015, roads, fields and even residential buildings are still dotted with landmines that continue to claim lives and limbs.

The task of clearing these explosive remnants of war has fallen to the Roj Mine Control Organization, a non-governmental humanitarian organization working in coordination with the Northeast Syria Mine Action Center, the de-facto umbrella group for mine-clearing efforts in Syria’s autonomous northeast.

Local and international agencies say they have collectively removed about 35,000 anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines throughout the region but thousands more remain.




Disarmed testing mine, near Jurniya in Syria. (Ali Ali)

At every checkpoint on the main highways between Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, signs are posted that show pictures of various types of mines and explosive ordnance alongside a message in giant red letters that warns: “Danger! Stay away! Don’t touch! Report quickly! Spread awareness! Protect yourself from the threat of mines, remnants of war, and suspicious and dangerous areas. Don’t go exploring. If you see something suspicious, tell the concerned authorities.”

From all accounts, such warnings are amply justified.

“I was 9 or 10 years old,” Omar Al-Omar, who is now 13, told Arab News at his home in Raqqa. “I was playing in front of our house when a mine exploded. I was in the hospital for two months and 10 days. I was unable to move around.”

FASTFACT

* International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, on April 4, aims to raise awareness about landmines and progress toward their eradication.

Both of Omar’s legs had to be amputated. He has regained some mobility thanks to prosthetic limbs that were provided by the Hope Makers Center in Raqqa, a charitable organization that has since had to suspend many of its services as a result of lack of funding. Someday, he said, he hopes to become a doctor.

The Social Affairs and Labor Committee of Raqqa Civil Council has documented about 2,500 individuals who, like Omar, were maimed by landmines in the city alone. Council worker Amira Hussein believes the true figure is much higher.




The scarred arm of 16-year-old Ahmed, wounded by a mine in October last year, in Kobane. (Ali Ali)

“If you look around Raqqa, on every street you will see a man, woman or child with a missing limb,” she told Arab News, scrolling through photos on her laptop of local children with missing limbs and scars from burns.

“Even in 2022, the issue of mines is still relevant. People thought that once Raqqa was liberated their lives would return to normal. But when they went back, mines went off in their homes.”

Much of the work carried out by local and international mine-disposal agencies has been focused on Raqqa, as the city was heavily mined during the years from 2014 to 2017 when it was under Daesh control.

Although crude improvised explosive devices left behind by retreating Daesh militants are still frequently discovered in the city, the bulk of the mine-disposal work is taking place in the countryside.

“There were a lot of mine explosions in the beginning but now there are far fewer,” Yusuf, a team administrator at the Raqqa Internal Security Forces’ Explosives Ordnance Disposal Unit, told Arab News.

“We maybe see mines only 1 percent of the time. Our team has cleared 80 percent of the city of Raqqa of mines.”




A Raqqa Internal Security Forces (Asayish) EOD team member in Syria. (Ali Ali)

However, not all of the explosive devices cleared by the Raqqa EODU are remnants of the battle to liberate the city. Daesh sleeper cells continue to operate here, planting explosives along roadsides and in buildings.

The 60-member Raqqa EODU team can respond to a report of an explosive device in less than 10 minutes, said Yusuf. This efficiency and dedication comes at a cost, however: 19 of its members have been killed in the line of duty.

While clearly highly dangerous, mine-disposal work can also be tedious and time-consuming. An international aid agency operating in Raqqa, which asked not to be identified for security reasons, has been systematically clearing the Tal Othman to Jurniya road for months now, often progressing just a few meters each day.

Locals said they watched Daesh militants lay mines along the road for seven months before the area was finally liberated in 2017. After three weeks of painstaking work, mine-disposal experts were able to locate and destroy two anti-tank mines.

Rocks painted red, marking the boundaries of safe areas, line the edge of the road where the disposal crews work, while rocks painted white denote safe paths. Once the road has been made completely safe and repaved, communities in Raqqa’s western countryside will once again have access to markets in Manbij city.

“We are making a sacrifice for the future,” one foreign mine-disposal expert working at the site told Arab News, his face obscured by a protective visor. He cannot be named for security reasons.

“The last time I went on holiday, two children died in Raqqa. This stays with you.”




De-mining markers, near Shaddadi in Syria. (Ali Ali)

As is the case in Raqqa, parts of Deir ez-Zor in the east of the country are also plagued by the explosive remnants of Daesh’s last stand. Here the group’s sleeper cells, operating close to the border with Iraq, continue to pose a threat to landmine-disposal teams.

The Monitoring and Observation Desk, an independent conflict observatory in northeastern Syria, documented 15 attacks on local security forces by Daesh remnants in the Deir ez-Zor region in February alone, two of which were carried out using landmines.

Besides the difficult task of removing and destroying mines, local and international agencies operating in Deir ez-Zor also work to raise community awareness of the threat, erect warning signs, and distribute literature about the threats posed by explosive remnants and how people can stay safe.

Agencies such as the Roj Mine Control Organization work directly with farming communities and schools to teach agricultural workers and children — two of the groups most at risk — how to recognize explosive devices and what to do if they stumble upon one.

The RMCO said it has conducted more than 1,400 mine-awareness sessions, during which it has spoken to about 17,700 people across northern and eastern Syria. Meanwhile, its mine-clearance teams claim to have removed more than 19,000 devices.

Although the RMCO operatives work to established international standards, they often lack the heavy armored machinery and personal protective equipment used by better-funded foreign agencies, making their work slower and at times much more dangerous.

The same is true in the far north of Syria, close to the border with Turkey, where the countryside is still littered with landmines and other explosives left over from the battle to liberate Kobane in 2015.

In a small village to the west of the city, a pair of Russian helicopters buzz overhead. On the brow of a nearby hill, a Turkish military post looks down from the imposing border wall.

Mohammed Sheikhmous, a farmer who lives just 50 meters from the border, lost one of his sons to a landmine.




Stephen Goose, director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Division. (AFP/File Photo)

“My son went out with the sheep and stepped on a mine,” Sheikhmous told Arab News. “There was nothing left of him. We had to gather his body parts.”

Before that incident, another of his sons had suffered serious injuries from a landmine blast, he said, which put the boy in hospital for two months and left him with permanent scars on his arms and legs.

In 2021 alone, 12 people in villages around Kobane lost their lives to mines, half of them children.

Because of the political complexities in this part of Syria, it is difficult for landmine-clearance teams to get permission to gain access and work. Agencies must somehow find a way to coordinate with local militias, Syrian regime forces, and the Russian and Turkish forces that have jointly patrolled the countryside around Kobane since October 2019 as part of a “de-escalation” agreement.

Until such complexities are resolved, farming communities straddling the border wil be compelled to live with this invisible, yet lethal threat.

“This is a burden that will never end, even with the end of the war,” said Hussein, the Raqqa Civil Council worker. “The mines that were planted are still there.

“Many people are still facing these threats. They can’t go home because they never know at what moment their lives will be threatened.”


Israel intercepts two missiles launched from Yemen, military says

Updated 5 min 8 sec ago
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Israel intercepts two missiles launched from Yemen, military says

  • Houthi Military Spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group launched a ballistic missile toward Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and two drones toward the Tel Aviv area

Israel’s military said it intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen and that sirens had sounded twice across the country including in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Thursday, as the Houthis stepped up attacks.
Houthi Military Spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group launched a ballistic missile toward Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and two drones toward the Tel Aviv area.
Undeterred by Israeli strikes on Yemen, the Houthis said they would continue to fire at Israel even though they have agreed to a ceasefire with the United States to halt attacks on US ships in the Red Sea.
Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes including one on May 6 that damaged Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa, and another last week targeting the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have launched dozens of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, most of which have been intercepted or have fallen short.
The group says it is acting in support of Gaza’s Palestinians. 


ICC prosecutor says Netanyahu arrest warrant should remain as Israel jurisdiction challenge is heard

Updated 22 May 2025
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ICC prosecutor says Netanyahu arrest warrant should remain as Israel jurisdiction challenge is heard

  • Prosecutors argue there is ‘no basis to withdraw or vacate’ the pending warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant
  • Israel is not a member of the court and contends the ICC has no authority to prosecute Israeli nationals

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: International Criminal Court prosecutors have urged judges to reject a request by Israel to scrap arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister while the court reconsiders its jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank.
In a 10-page written submission posted on the ICC website late Wednesday, prosecutors argue there is “no basis to withdraw or vacate” the pending warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
The warrants were issued in November, when judges found there was “reason to believe” Netanyahu and Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials strongly deny the accusations.
The prosecution document was signed on behalf of prosecutor Karim Khan, who temporarily stepped down on Friday pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
The filing argues it is important for the underlying investigation to continue in the “current situation where crimes are ongoing and escalating.”
Last month, appeals judges ordered a pretrial panel to reconsider an Israeli challenge to the court’s jurisdiction.
Israel argued in its application for the warrants to be withdrawn that the court “doesn’t have, and never had” jurisdiction to issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Israel is not a member of the court and contends the ICC has no authority to prosecute Israeli nations. The Hague-based institution, however, has accepted “The State of Palestine” as one of its 126 member nations.
ICC chief prosecutor Khan is currently on leave until the conclusion of an external probe into accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.
An investigation by The Associated Press last year found that two court employees, in whom the alleged victim confided, reported the alleged misconduct in May 2024 to the court’s independent watchdog.
Along with the warrants for the Israeli officials, the court also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing, over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza. The warrant was withdrawn in February, after his death in an Israeli airstrike was confirmed.


Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan’s critique of Gaza war toll on Palestinians sparks outcry

Updated 22 May 2025
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Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan’s critique of Gaza war toll on Palestinians sparks outcry

  • Yair Golan’s comments are some of the harshest language against Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza
  • It is not uncommon for politicians to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war strategy

TEL AVIV, Israel: Killing babies “as a hobby.” “Expelling a population.” “Fighting against civilians.”
It is some of the harshest language against Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza and it came this week from a prominent Israeli politician, sparking a domestic uproar as the country faces heavy international criticism.
It is not uncommon for politicians to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war strategy, especially his failure to free all the hostages held by Hamas. What made the comments by center-left opposition party leader Yair Golan rare – and jarring to officials across the political spectrum – was their focus on the plight of Palestinians.
The ensuing controversy underscored how little the war’s toll on Gaza’s civilians has figured into the public discourse in Israel – in stark contrast to the rest of the world.
Speaking to the Israeli public radio station Reshet Bet, Golan – a former general – said Israel was becoming a pariah state and cautioned that “a sane country doesn’t engage in fighting against civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a hobby and doesn’t set for itself the goals of expelling a population.”
After the outcry, he said he was referring to the conduct of Israel’s far-right government in his remarks, not of its soldiers.
A rare focus on the plight of Palestinian civilians
Golan’s words were a shock to the system because, outside of the country’s politically marginalized left, criticism focused on Palestinian civilian suffering and deaths has rarely been spoken publicly in Israel.
The reasons for this include: the trauma Israelis still feel over Hamas’ deadly attack on Oct. 7. 2023, Jewish citizens’ deep faith in the righteousness of the military, dozens of hostages remain in Gaza and soldiers are dying to rescue them.
Criticism of the war has focused overwhelmingly on Netanyahu. His opponents believe his own political motives have dictated war strategy and his failure to reach a deal with Hamas to release all the hostages – an accusation he denies.
“Part of the Israeli public and media outlets are still trapped in an obsession over the initial shock that started this war,” said Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister and fierce critic of the current government. “But this is changing and it’s just a matter of time.”
Public opinion polls show that most Israelis support ending the war in exchange for the release of the remaining 58 hostages held by Hamas, around a third of whom are said to be alive.
Opponents of the war have tended to focus on concerns over the fate of the remaining hostages and the risk of soldier casualties in a campaign that many feel has run its course.
While Olmert disputed Golan’s choice of words, he said the essence of his remarks “reflects what many people think.”
Israelis are still traumatized by Hamas’ attack
After Hamas’ 2023 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, Israelis rallied behind the military. They saw the war as a just response to the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. Many Israelis cannot imagine a future where Hamas remains intact.
Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has displaced 90 percent of the territory’s roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape.
While international media coverage has largely focused on the war in Gaza and its toll on civilians there, in Israel the media still devotes heavy attention to the Oct. 7 attack itself and the hostage crisis. Photos of those still held captive line the streets.
Stories about the plight of Palestinian civilians are less prominent, and largely avoid the harshest images emanating from Gaza. Most outlets repeat the official line that Hamas is solely to blame for the civilian toll.
For many Jewish Israelis, it is hard to fathom that their own children, most of whom must enlist in Israel’s military, could be committing the crimes that Golan described.
All that has helped solidify a national narrative that views the war as an existential struggle.
“When you fight a war of existence, you don’t much think about the suffering of the enemy,” said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.
Golan’s words have sparked outcry before
A former deputy chief of staff of the military, Golan’s words have sparked outcry in the past. The most notable occasion was a 2016 speech marking Israel’s Holocaust remembrance day, when he compared what he said was an increasingly illiberal atmosphere in Israel to that of Nazi-era Germany.
On Oct. 7, Golan donned his uniform and grabbed a gun to help battle militants during Israel’s flailing first response to Hamas’ assault. Olmert called him “one of Israel’s greatest warriors.”
Golan is not the first public figure to have made such remarks about Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Former defense minister and military chief of staff Moshe Yaalon accused Israel of ethnic cleansing during a major operation last year. Zehava Galon, a former leader of a dovish political party, highlighted the deaths of thousands of children at a recent protest in Tel Aviv.
But unlike them, Golan has his political future at stake, lending more weight to his words.
Pictures of dead Palestinian children
Netanyahu said Golan’s words “echoed disgraceful antisemitic blood libels.” Benny Gantz, an opposition leader, said Golan’s remarks were extreme and false and called on him to recant and apologize, which he did not do. Yair Lapid, another opposition leader, said Golan’s words were “a gift to our enemies.”
Rosner said Golan’s wording was “uncareful” and that instead of triggering introspection, they prompted a media debate over Golan himself and the damage his remarks might cause to Israel.
But they could resonate among the steadfast anti-war protest movement, said Alma Beck, an activist who is part of a small contingent of demonstrators who have been holding up pictures of Palestinian children killed in Gaza ever since Israel ended a ceasefire in March. She said the group began as 20 people and has grown to 600, still just a fraction of the thousands attending the broader anti-government protests.
Beck said the protest movement has been receptive to messages that focus on the Palestinian toll, and more signs with that message have been held up by demonstrators in recent weeks. Their main criticism remains that Netanyahu is continuing the war to appease his governing partners and ensure his own political survival.
“I think there is a shift. I think people are starting to connect the dots,” she said, while noting that the bulk of Israeli society hasn’t changed. “I hope that it will only grow.”


UN warns of renewed conflict in Syria but offers hope with sanctions lifting

Updated 22 May 2025
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UN warns of renewed conflict in Syria but offers hope with sanctions lifting

  • The new Syrian government, led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, has said Syria’s heritage of coexistence must be preserved at all costs, but the country faces massive challenges

UNITED NATIONS: The top UN official for Syria warned Wednesday of the “real dangers of renewed conflict and deeper confrontation” in the war-battered country but also hoped for a better life for its people following decisions by the US and European Union to lift sanctions.
Geir Pedersen noted the fragilities in the multiethnic country and “the urgent need to address the growing polarization.” He pointed to violence against the Druze minority in late April following the killings in Alawite-minority areas in March.
“The challenges facing Syria are enormous, and the real dangers of renewed conflict and deeper fragmentation have not yet been overcome,” he told the UN Security Council.
But Pedersen said the Syrian people are cautiously optimistic that President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the US will lift sanctions and a similar EU announcement Tuesday will “give them a better chance than before to succeed against great odds.”
Speaking by video from Damascus, Pedersen called sanctions relief, including by the United Kingdom last month, as well as financial and energy support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye “historic developments.”
“They hold major potential to improve living conditions across the country and to support the Syrian political transition,” the UN special envoy said. “And they give the Syrian people a chance to grapple with the legacy of misrule, conflict, abuses and poverty from which they are trying to emerge.”
Former Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted in a lightning rebel offensive late last year after a 13-year war, ending more than 50 years of rule by the Assad family. The new Syrian government, led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, has said Syria’s heritage of coexistence must be preserved at all costs, but the country faces massive challenges.
Today, 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty, with 16.5 million needing protection and humanitarian assistance, including nearly 3 million facing acute food insecurity, Ramesh Rajasingham, the UN humanitarian division’s chief coordinator, told the council.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that Syria is potentially “on the verge of collapse,” warning that would lead to civil war and the country again becoming “a playground” for the Daesh group and other militants.
Pedersen told the Security Council that IS has been escalating attacks in areas of Syria in recent weeks, with signs of more coordinated operations using improvised explosive devices and medium-range weapons.
Rubio said there’s no guarantee that “things are going to work out” by lifting sanctions and working with Al-Sharaa’s transitional government, but if the US didn’t try, “it’s guaranteed not to work out.” He said Trump’s announcement of sanctions relief has led regional and Arab partner nations to help stabilize the country.
“No one should pretend this is going to be easy, because it’s not,” Rubio said. But if Syria could be stabilized, it would mean broader stability in the region, including Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, he said.
“It is a historic opportunity we hope comes to fruition,” Rubio said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make it succeed.”
John Kelley, political coordinator at the US mission to the United Nations, told the council that “US government agencies are now working to execute the president’s direction on Syria’s sanctions.”
“We look forward to issuing the necessary authorizations that will be critical to bringing new investment into Syria to help rebuild Syria’s economy and put the country on a path to a bright, prosperous and stable future,” he said. “The United States also has taken the first steps toward restoring normal diplomatic relations with Syria.”
Syria’s transitional government is urged to take “bold steps” toward Trump administration expectations, Kelley said, including making peace with Israel, quickly removing foreign militant fighters from the Syrian military, ensuring foreign extremists such as Palestinian militias can’t operate from Syria, and cooperating in preventing the resurgence of the Daesh group.
Syria’s deputy UN ambassador, Riyad Khaddour, praised Trump’s “courageous decision” to lift sanctions as well as his meeting with Al-Sharaa. Khaddour also touted actions by the European Union, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates “to support Syria as it moves forward with confidence and hope.”
“The new Syria” is seeking to become “a state of peace and partnership, not a battleground for conflicts or a platform for foreign ambitions,” he said.


A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants

Updated 22 May 2025
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A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants

  • Years of conflict have left South Sudan heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance

The United States is being asked to explain why it appears to be deporting migrants from as far away as Vietnam and Cuba to South Sudan, a chaotic country that’s once again in danger of collapsing into civil war.
A US judge ordered Trump administration officials to appear at an emergency hearing Wednesday to answer questions. The administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes in the US but refused to say where they would end up.
If South Sudan is the confirmed destination, that means people from Vietnam, Mexico and elsewhere are being sent to a nation they have no link to, thousands of miles from where they want to be. Vietnam’s list of its embassies in Africa shows the closest one to South Sudan is in Tanzania, over 800 miles away.
South Sudan’s police spokesperson, Maj. Gen. James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press that no migrants had arrived and if they did, they would be investigated and “redeported to their correct country” if not South Sudanese.
Some in the capital, Juba, worried their country would become a kind of dumping ground. “Those people who are deported, some of them are criminals, they have been involved in crimes. So once they are brought to South Sudan, that means that criminal activities will also increase,” said Martin Mawut Ochalla, 28.
This would not be the first time the Trump administration has pressured South Sudan over deportees. Recently, the administration abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying their government failed to accept the return of its citizens “in a timely manner.” South Sudan pushed back, saying the person in question was Congolese, but later said it would allow him to enter “in the spirit of maintaining friendly relations” with the US
South Sudan’s government has struggled since independence from Sudan in 2011 to deliver many of the basic services of a state. Years of conflict have left the country heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance.
Here’s a look at South Sudan, whose own people had been granted US temporary protected status because of insecurity at home.
A deadly divide
The euphoria of independence turned to civil war two years later, when rival factions backing President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar opened fire on each other in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in 2013.
The two men’s tensions have been so much at the heart of the country’s insecurity that the late Pope Francis once took the extraordinary step of kneeling to kiss their feet in a plea for lasting peace.
Five years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. A peace deal reached in 2018 has been fragile and not fully implemented, to the frustration of the US and other international backers. South Sudan still hasn’t held a long-delayed presidential election, and Kiir remains in power.
His rivalry with Machar is compounded by ethnic divisions. Machar has long regarded himself as destined for the presidency, citing a prophecy years ago by a seer from his ethnic group.
Earlier this year, the threat of war returned. Machar was arrested and allies in the government and military were detained following a major escalation that included airstrikes and an attack on a United Nations helicopter. Machar’s opposition party announced South Sudan’s peace deal was effectively over.
“Let’s not mince words: What we are seeing is darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 civil wars, which killed 400,000 people,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned.
Some Western countries have closed their embassies there while others, including the US, have reduced embassy staff. The US Embassy’s travel warning said that “violent crime, such as carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings are common throughout South Sudan, including Juba.”
A country in disarray
The Trump administration’s pressure on South Sudan to take in deportees, including foreign ones, is in sharp contrast to Washington’s past warm embrace as its rebel leaders — including Kiir and Machar — fought for independence.
Now there is less support than ever for most of South Sudan’s over 11 million people because of the cuts in US aid.
Climate shocks including flooding have long caused mass displacement and closed schools. South Sudan’s health and education systems were already among the weakest in the world. Aid organizations had offered essential help.
South Sudan’s government has long relied on oil production, but little money from that is seen, in part because of official corruption. Conflict in neighboring Sudan has affected landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports. Civil servants at times go months without being paid.
How South Sudan is equipped to handle migrants arriving abruptly from the US is yet to be seen.