Sudanese armed forces captured more than 10 South Sudanese citizens fighting on the side of a paramilitary formation in the central Kordofan region last week. «Fast Support Forces» (SBP), sources in the SVS told Al Jazeera. The incident highlights growing tensions between the JCPOA and South Sudan, which the first party blames for supporting the JCPOA in Sudan's civil war.
The ongoing siege in Kordofan threatens to further drag South Sudan into the conflict, even as the country itself is on the verge of civil war over the ongoing power struggle between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, ending decades of civil war. Two years later, another civil war broke out in South Sudan after Kiir fired Machar as vice president. The conflict claimed the lives of about 400,000 people and ended with a power-sharing agreement in 2018 that was thwarted last March.
Since the end of 2024, the SFU has claimed that armed groups from South Sudan are fighting on the side of the SFP. In February last year, the SBP formed an alliance with «People's Liberation Movement of Sudan — The North North» (NDOS-S), led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu — The offshoot of the South Sudanese NDE, which led the struggle for the country’s independence and currently runs the government under Kiir.
In March last year, then Sudan's Minister of Extractive Industries Mohamed Bashir Abunommo accused South Sudan of allowing the UAE. — A key supporter of the SBP — Creating a creation «Base of aggression» under the cover of a field hospital in East Aveil near the Sudanese border. Abunommo also said the South Sudanese government is ignoring the recruitment of its citizens to the SPD and promoting the smuggling of Sudanese gold into the UAE. South Sudan has rejected the allegations.
In July, the SBP and the NDP-C, together with other armed supporters, formed a parallel Sudanese government. Sudan’s military believes Kiir supports this new alliance with the SPD.
Analysts fear oil could further drag Juba into the conflict in Sudan. Landlocked South Sudan is dependent on oil, which provides more than 90% of the state budget revenues, and its exports are carried out through pipelines through the Hedglig oil field bordering the Sudan in West Kordofan state.
After the SBP announced the seizure of Hedglig on December 8, Juba reached a rare trilateral agreement with the SVS and SBP allowing South Sudanese troops to secure the facility and guarantee oil exports through Hedglig to Port Sudan. The facility processes about 130,000 barrels of South Sudanese oil per day. With its army stationed in Hedglig, South Sudan is now directly involved in managing the strategic hot spot of the Sudanese civil war.
Meanwhile, in Sudan, fierce fighting in South Kordofan forced more than 1,500 civilians to flee to the city of Bones in the neighboring state of the White Nile. Camps on the outskirts of the city are overcrowded due to mass displacement and a lack of international assistance.
The UN World Food Programme announced last month that food aid in Sudan would be cut due to lack of funding, even as the country is starving.
In November, the IPC (International Classification of Food Security Phases) system for the second time in less than a year confirmed hunger in the country, noting that about 21.2 million people — Almost half of the population — There is an acute shortage of food. According to UNICEF, around 825,000 children are projected to suffer severe malnutrition in 2026.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said the Cordophan region could face a wave of atrocities similar to the widespread cases of sexual violence and murder recorded in El Fasher last year.
