South Sudan tensions: Kiir, Museveni hold talks in Juba

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was in South Sudan on Friday amid fears for the fragile government of President Salva Kiir as a tense rivalry with his deputy threatens a return to civil war in the east African nation.

Tensions have peaked since the house arrest of first vice-president Riek Machar last week, following weeks of mounting violence between Kiir’s army and forces close to Machar’s movement.

Kiir and Museveni are allies, and Museveni has in the past intervened in the South Sudan conflict to keep Kiir in power.

Uganda has deployed an unknown number of troops to South Sudan in a bid to protect Kiir's government.

The latest tensions stem from fighting in the country's north between government troops and a rebel militia, known as the White Army, that's widely believed to be allied with Machar.

Kiir had angered Machar’s group earlier in the year by firing officials seen as loyal to Machar, who has charged that “persistent violations through unilateral decisions and decrees threaten the very existence” of their peace pact.

Kiir urged calm after last week's helicopter incident, saying in a statement that his government "will handle this crisis and we will remain steadfast in the path of peace.”

Civil war erupted in South Sudan in late 2013 when a rift between Kiir and Machar escalated into fighting along ethnic lines. Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, accused a group of soldiers loyal to Machar, an ethnic Nuer, of trying to take power by force.

Machar escaped Juba, and later rebels loyal to him came close to capturing Juba but were repulsed by a combined force of South Sudanese soldiers loyal to Kiir and Ugandan special forces.

More than 400,000 people were killed in the five-year civil war that followed.

With the support of regional leaders and the international community, Kiir and Machar signed a peace deal in 2018 and Machar returned to Juba as South Sudan's first vice president.

But the political rivalry between South Sudan's top two leaders — with Kiir suspicious of his deputy’s ambitions and Machar calling Kiir a dictator — remains an obstacle to lasting peace. Both men have been accused of violating multiple ceasefires.