South Sudan peace agreement under pressure amid disagreements over military

South Sudanese security forces have reportedly left the premises of First Vice-President Riek Machar's residence in the capital, Juba on Monday morning after surrounding his home late Saturday. This after further disagreements over the implementation of a fragile 2018 peace agreement.

South Sudan First Vice President Riek Machar (l) and President Salva Kiir (r) during happier times in Juba. ALEX MCBRIDE / AFP

The officers were stationed outside his house after he released a statement saying he would reject President Salva Kiir’s order to create a national army, as outlined in the 2018 peace deal.

"The unilateral decision by President Kiir is a violation of the revitalised peace agreement and is a clear rejection of the ongoing mediation process," said Machar on Saturday.

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Machar - leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) had said that Kiir was not sharing the military and police force positions in equal measure, which was also part of the peace deal.

Help from IGAD?

Machar is worried that tensions may escalate, and has contacted the eight members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) regional bloc to ask for help, and in particular General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the Sudanese head of state after the latest coup.

Khartoum was an integral part of the 2018 peace process after five years of civil war.

Machar had asked for international intervention in the fighting in Unity and Upper Nile states. Both states are considered his strongholds.

The clashes between forces loyal to Machar and the South Sudanese military could break the already-fragile peace agreement.

South Sudan -- the world's newest nation -- has suffered from chronic instability since independence in 2011, spending almost half of its life as a nation at war.

The country was in 2013 plunged into a brutal five-year civil war between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar that cost almost 400,000 lives and uprooted millions from their homes.