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The Trump administration’s decision over the weekend to revoke visas for all South Sudanese passport holders adds to the mounting political and humanitarian challenges confronting the world’s youngest nation.
South Sudan faces the risk of civil war as tensions between its political leaders have escalated, especially since the authorities put the vice president under house arrest in late March. Millions of people are also facing hunger, displacement and disease outbreaks as violence intensifies and the United States cuts aid.
The sweeping visa ban, regional observers say, shows how Washington is retreating at a time of immense need for the East African nation, which it helped bring into existence nearly 15 years ago by supporting its bid for independence from Sudan.
“A massive storm is forming over South Sudan, and the visa ban only adds to the anxiety people have about all that could go wrong,” said Daniel Akech, the senior South Sudan analyst at the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization. “The timing and execution of it is just not right or helpful.”
On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was revoking visas for South Sudanese nationals and preventing any more from entering the United States. The deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, said on social media that South Sudan had refused to accept the repatriation of one of its nationals.
The Trump administration has not said whether it would seek to deport South Sudanese nationals whose visas had been revoked. South Sudan’s government has not responded to the announcement of the visa ban, and a government spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
South Sudan sends relatively few travelers to the United States. Just 46 nonimmigrant visas were issued to its nationals in January, compared with more than 2,500 to people from neighboring Kenya, according to U.S. government data.
The visa cancellations come amid deepening political rifts between President Salva Kiir and his vice president, Riek Machar. The schism threatens the fragile 2018 peace agreement that ended a five-year civil war, which killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions from their homes.
The authorities have also arrested several high-level opposition figures, some of whose whereabouts are unknown, according to activists.
In recent months, the Sudanese military and opposition forces allied with Mr. Machar have clashed outside Juba, the capital, and in other parts of the country. In March, a U.N. helicopter evacuating wounded soldiers from Upper Nile State in the northeast was attacked, resulting in the death of a general, along with several other military officers and a crew member. The violence in the state has uprooted tens of thousands of people, some of whom have fled into Ethiopia, according to the United Nations.
Uganda’s government has deployed troops to South Sudan at the request of President Kiir, a move that incensed Mr. Machar and his allies. Regional diplomatic efforts to quell the discord have failed so far, raising fears of further instability and the potential collapse of the government.
U.S. aid cuts are also hurting efforts to rebuild after years of conflict. The United States spent $705 million on food, health, education and other programs in the country last year. But much of that funding has vanished since the Trump administration came to power, aid groups say, forcing them to leave vulnerable communities facing floods, widespread cholera outbreaks and food shortages without support.
“South Sudan is quickly becoming the forgotten crisis of the world,” Denish Ogenrwot, the advocacy lead for the aid agency Action Against Hunger, said by telephone from Juba.
He said his agency had dismissed almost two-thirds of its staff. Some of its facilities have closed, forcing mothers and their children to walk five to 10 hours to reach the remaining ones, instead of two hours, he said.
“American aid went a long way,” Mr. Ogenrwot said. “The lack of it means problems will only get worse.”
Mr. Akech of the International Crisis Group said the sudden visa revocations could disrupt the lives of South Sudanese nationals in the United States.
Mr. Akech said the visa revocations should have targeted members of the elite responsible for worsening the situation in South Sudan, not the broader population. “The pain will be felt by those who should not be punished,” he said.
South Sudanese opposition officials in the United States said on Monday that they were worried about the people who could be deported.
“We are gravely concerned that individuals who are repatriated may face severe harm or even death at the hands of the very government responsible for these failures,” Reath Muoch Tang, a Washington-based senior official in Mr. Machar’s party who is a legal permanent resident of the United States, said in a statement to The New York Times.
Future U.S. action, he said, should “focus on promoting accountability among leaders while safeguarding the lives and interests of ordinary South Sudanese citizens.”
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