U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders have been revoked, accusing the country’s transitional government of manipulating American goodwill.
“The United States will not be taken advantage of,” Rubio declared on Saturday. “Every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner. South Sudan has blatantly disregarded that principle.”
Rubio didn’t stop there. Along with stripping existing visas, he announced an immediate freeze on future visa issuances for South Sudanese nationals—effectively sealing the gates to the U.S.
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This marks a sharp escalation in international response as South Sudan teeters on the edge. Once a symbol of hope as the world’s newest nation, the country is now hurtling toward potential collapse.
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Violence between government forces and armed opposition groups has reignited, and the political landscape has grown increasingly volatile. Just days ago, First Vice President Riek Machar—longtime opposition leader and central figure in the fragile 2018 peace accord—was arrested by government forces, triggering alarm bells across the region.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres didn’t mince words, warning that South Sudan is staring down “a security emergency” and may be slipping “over the abyss” into another civil war.
Meanwhile, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, one of the few regional power brokers still holding the pieces of the peace puzzle, met behind closed doors with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir on Thursday. The goal: prevent the peace deal from unraveling entirely.
Despite growing fears of collapse, South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdallah Goc insists the government remains committed to the 2018 agreement. But with international patience thinning and internal tensions boiling over, the path forward looks increasingly perilous.
