S Sudan peace deal collapse risks 'all-out war': UN experts 

GENEVA, Mar 27: Failure to uphold South Sudan's peace accords could trigger a "catastrophic" return to war and threaten millions of lives, the UN commission documenting rights abuses in the country warned Thursday.

South Sudan's opposition said the arrest overnight of First Vice President Riek Machar, the long-time rival to President Salva Kiir, had invalidated their 2018 peace deal, the cornerstone of the nation's fragile stability.

The arrest, alongside mounting military clashes and reported attacks on civilian populations, "signals a severe unravelling of the peace process -- and a direct threat to millions of lives", the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said in a statement. �"AFP