{"id":3311,"date":"2025-08-11T11:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T11:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jubaglobal.com\/?p=3311"},"modified":"2025-08-11T11:02:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T11:02:16","slug":"au-team-discusses-withdrawal-of-updf-from-south-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/au-team-discusses-withdrawal-of-updf-from-south-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"AU team discusses withdrawal of UPDF from South Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"592\" height=\"279\" src=\"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1977\/2025\/08\/1000268702.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3312\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The African Union Peace and Security Council and South Sudanese civil society groups on Sunday discussed the presence of Ugandan troops in the country, emphasizing the need for their withdrawal to ease political and security tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deployment of the Ugandan People\u2019s Defense Forces (UPDF) has been controversial since it began in March amid renewed tensions between President Salva Kiir and his rival, First Vice President Riek Machar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The operation, codenamed Milnzi Wa Kimya\u2014Swahili for \u201cSilent Guardian\u201d\u2014has faced scrutiny over its scope and funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A youth group from Kiir\u2019s home area recently claimed each Ugandan soldier in South Sudan is paid $200 per day, an allegation neither government has confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Uganda has long been a key security ally for Juba, sending troops in 2013 to back Kiir during a brutal civil war against Machar. The conflict killed an estimated 400,000 people before a fragile peace deal was reached in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It remains unclear whether South Sudan\u2019s government will agree to withdraw the Ugandan forces, which were deployed to South Sudan at the request of President Salva Kiir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Edmund Yakani, a civil society representative who attended the closed-door AU meeting, told Radio Tamazuj Monday that key outcomes included calls for an immediate de-escalation of violence between Kiir\u2019s forces and Machar\u2019s opposition group, as well as the UPDF\u2019s withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yakani said civil society members also urged the swift appointment of a former African head of state as the African Union High-Level Representative to South Sudan (AUHLRSS) to help mediate lingering disputes under the 2018 peace agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other demands included an inclusive political dialogue on election conditions, the unconditional release of political detainees including the first vice president and a constitutional review process separate from elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Great meeting with @_AfricanUnion Peace&amp;Security Council,chaired by \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddff, in Juba with CSO colleagues, discussing \ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddf8\u2019s security&amp;political situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddf8\u2019s future depends on peaceful, inclusive dialogue with all stakeholders \u2014 the time to act is now.#PeaceInSouthSudan can&#8217;t wait \u270b\ud83c\udfff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The African Union Peace and Security Council and South Sudanese civil society groups on Sunday&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[786,836,830,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-african-union","category-breaking-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3313,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions\/3313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/directtopic.com\/jubaglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}