The Albany Gazette - UN urges action to prevent full civil war in South Sudan

"We need urgent action to preserve the peace agreement and prevent fragmentation and cycles of retaliation that could herald a return to all-out civil war," Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council.

Violence has risen in recent weeks as a power-sharing deal between rival generals, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, has unravelled.

Turk said the situation had deteriorated further in January, with a 45-percent surge in rights violations and abuses compared to the previous month.

Last month alone, he said his office had documented that 189 civilians had been killed and many more wounded.

The UN high commissioner for human rights said he was "horrified" to learn of a massacre last weekend by government forces and allied militia on a village in Ayod County in Jonglei.

"Witnesses told my colleagues that troops ordered residents to gather, and then opened fire on the crowd, killing 21 unarmed civilians including women and children," Turk said.

"Military discipline appears to have collapsed" on both sides of the conflict, with troops demonstrating "a near-total disregard for civilian protection", he said.

- Pressure 'intensifying' -

Turk said his team had recorded more than 5,100 people killed and wounded in the conflict in 2025 -- a 40-percent increase compared to 2024.

Denouncing what he said was rampant sexual violence, he said his team had documented "a disturbing increase to 550 in the number of civilians abducted by opposition forces and their allies in 2025".

Turk voiced particular concern at hate speech and incitement to violence targeting entire communities and ethnic groups.

"In one audio recording authenticated by the UN mission, a senior military official urged his forces to spare no lives, and to destroy civilian homes, livestock, and property," he told the council.

Meanwhile the deputy head of the UN migration agency, visiting South Sudan, called for urgent dialogue to tackle the spiralling situation.

"At its core, this is a political crisis with profound humanitarian consequences," the International Organization for Migration's Ugochi Daniels said.

"Without progress on the political track, humanitarian needs will only continue to escalate," she told reporters in Geneva, speaking from the capital Juba.

She said more than 250,000 people had been displaced over the past two months, which had "hardly registered" with the rest of the world.

"Pressures are intensifying," Daniels said, the latest crisis coming on top of decades of protracted displacement, exacerbated by climate shocks -- at a time when the UN's capacity to help is drying up due to funding cuts.

"Without security, reliable services and sustained investment in infrastructure and recovery, South Sudan risks being trapped in cycles of protracted displacement and dependency," she said.

(F.Jackson--TAG)