SOUTH SUDAN is teetering on the edge of renewed civil war, the top United Nations official in the world’s youngest nation warned on Monday, lamenting the government’s sudden postponement of the latest peace effort.

Calling the situation unfolding in the country “dire,” Nicholas Haysom said that international efforts to broker a peaceful solution can only succeed if President Salva Kiir and his rival-turned-vice president, Riek Machar, are willing to engage “and put the interests of their people ahead of their own.”

The country slid into civil war in December 2013, largely based on ethnic divisions when forces loyal to President Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled those loyal to Mr Machar, an ethnic Nuer.

More than 400,000 people were killed in the war, which ended with a 2018 peace agreement that brought Mr Kiir and Mr Machar together in a government of national unity. 

The latest tensions stem from fighting in the country’s north between government troops from the Machar-allied White Army militia.

Mr Haysom said: “Given this grim situation, we are left with no other conclusion but to assess that South Sudan is teetering on the edge of a relapse into civil war.”

Mr Haysom said that the peacekeeping mission is engaging in intense shuttle diplomacy with international and regional partners, including the African Union.