Rubio said the freeze will remain in force until South Sudan is ‘in full cooperation.’
The State Department has announced it is freezing all existing and new visas for South Sudanese seeking to enter the United States, citing the transitional government’s refusal to accept its own nationals being deported from the United States.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the new visa and travel restrictions on Saturday, while accusing the East African nation’s leadership of “taking advantage of the United States.”
“Enforcing our nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States,” Rubio said. “Every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the United States, seeks to remove them.
“Effective immediately, the United States Department of State is taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry into the United States by South Sudanese passport holders.”
The secretary said the freeze will remain in force until “South Sudan is in full cooperation.”
The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, had suspended its services on April 22, 2023, over regional instability.
South Sudan stands on the brink of falling back into civil war after the first vice president was put under house arrest, accused by the president of the transitional government of inciting a rebellion in Nasir in the Upper Nile State in March.
The arrest threatens a 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year civil war between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar. The deal saw the formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) in February 2020. The deadly conflict, rooted in communal tensions between Kirr’s Dinka community and Machar’s Nuer community, cost approximately an estimated 400,000 lives.
The transition government is also facing security challenges in the Upper Nile state, where government forces have clashed with opposition groups.
