Rising tensions in the east African country of South Sudan, culminating in the 26 March arrest of Vice-President Riek Machar, have sparked concerns that the world’s youngest nation is heading for another civil war.

His party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM-IO), has said that his house arrest “effectively brings… to a collapse” the fragile 2018 peace agreement that ended five years of fighting.

What’s the background?

South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest countries, gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of struggle led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), now under President Salva Kiir.

Just two years into independence, a civil war erupted when Kiir dismissed Machar as vice-president, accusing him of plotting a coup.