Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Nicholas Haysom said that the deteriorating situation in the country leads him to assess that South Sudan is teetering on the brink of renewed civil war.The indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the Nasir area of Upper Nile state caused significant human losses and horrific injuries, Haysom pointed out, further noting that at least 63,000 people have fled due to the deteriorating situation in the region.He said UNMISS is conducting ‘intense shuttle diplomacy’ alongside international and regional peace partners, including the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, to bring peace to South Sudan.The international community's efforts to mediate a peaceful solution can only succeed if the parties themselves are willing to engage and place the interests of their peoples above their own, Haysom emphasized.Haysom warned that the alternative is sliding into a conflict that would erase all the hard-won gains made since the signing of the peace agreement in 2018. It would devastate not only South Sudan, but the entire region, which simply cannot afford another war.Head of UNMISS stressed that the collective message of the region and the international community is one and that there is only one way out of the cycle of conflict, which is to return to the revitalized peace agreement, in letter and spirit.
