The tension between South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and VP Riek Machar heightened after the latter’s suspension in joint security bodies meant to implement a 2018 peace deal.

The suspension is due to what Machar called unprovoked attacks on its positions by the army.

On Sunday, Machar’s home was surrounded by soldiers who left again on Monday.

At least 440 civilians were killed in brutal fighting between rival militias in the country’s southwest between June and September last year, a joint report by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the UN Human Rights Office said earlier this month.

Machar was sworn in as VP in 2020 and South Sudan is due to hold elections next year as per the agreement.

But the two sides have accused each other of attacks in the past week.

Fighting between forces loyal to the two led to a civil war two years after South Sudan’s independence, killing at least 400,000 and displacing 4 million of the country’s 12 million population.

Aljazeera.