South Sudanese student leader urges ceasefire amid rising violence

JUBA — A South Sudanese student leader has appealed for an immediate ceasefire and a return to dialogue, warning that the country risks sliding into another full-scale civil war as fighting escalates in Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile states.

In an email to Sudans Post today, Dut Garang, president of the South Sudan General Students’ Union in Egypt, said the current security deterioration amounted to a renewed civil war and urged leaders to halt mobilisation and prioritise negotiations.

“What is happening now in our country is simply another civil war,” Garang wrote. “No one needs to lecture former SPLM/A soldiers about the consequences of civil war. We know too well what it brings—destruction of property, loss of countless lives, mass displacement, and deepening divisions among our people along tribal and political lines.”

His appeal comes days after opposition forces captured Pajut, a town along the road north Jonglei State capital Bor, prompting the government to dispatch reinforcements toward the area.

Clashes have also intensified in parts of Unity and Upper Nile states, heightening fears of wider escalation.

Garang argued that South Sudan’s history showed war halted development and entrenched divisions, pointing to a brief post-independence boom that he said was reversed by the 2013 conflict.

“South Sudan, and the South of the former Sudan before it, was never developed because we have been fighting since 1955,” he wrote. “War halts progress. During conflict, no one builds roads, schools, hospitals, or a future.”

He questioned the renewed mobilisation by rival forces, saying claims of a lack of funds to implement peace commitments contrasted with resources now being found to fight.

“We claimed we could not integrate and deploy the unified forces because we had no money,” he wrote. “Yet suddenly we have money to mobilize for war on both sides? We have resources to destroy, but not to build? Money to fight, but not to reconcile?”

Calling for an immediate halt to fighting, Garang urged leaders to return to talks under the 2018 peace framework.

“Instead, let us choose a different path. Stop the mobilization. Declare an immediate ceasefire. Return to dialogue,” he wrote.

He said South Sudan’s independence and past conflicts were ultimately resolved through negotiations, not battlefield victories.

“There will be negotiations in the end. There always are,” Garang wrote. “So why not choose negotiations now instead of later—after more bloodshed, more destruction, and more wasted years?”

Garang appealed directly to President Salva Kiir Mayardit, urging him to intervene to prevent further bloodshed.

“I therefore call upon my President, H.E. Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed and Organized Forces, to rescue the Republic,” he wrote. “But today, we need his civil leadership more than his military leadership. This conflict will create no heroes.”

He also urged South Sudanese leaders and communities to reject hate speech and mobilize for peace.

“The people and government of South Sudan must speak with one voice: the language of peace, not war; dialogue, not confrontation,” he wrote.

The appeal comes as regional and international concern mounts. The African Union is expected to convene a meeting this week to discuss South Sudan, while the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan has warned against attacks on civilians and urged all parties to protect non-combatants.

Garang called on regional states and international partners to step up engagement, urging neighbouring countries to support dialogue rather than conflict and appealing to donors not to turn away.

“The ongoing mobilizations by all parties to the conflict, including rebel groups that have not yet joined the fighting, must stop immediately,” he wrote. “Dialogue must be prioritized above all else.”

As violence spreads across multiple fronts, Garang warned that another prolonged war would deepen displacement and economic collapse.

“War is more expensive than peace,” he wrote. “It will fill more camps, displace more families, empty more towns, and divide our people even further. No responsible leadership should accept this.”