Thousands of people fled Akobo after the South Sudanese army issued a forced evacuation order Conflict news

Thousands of civilians have fled an opposition stronghold in eastern South Sudan after the army ordered an evacuation to clear the way for a military offensive, the latest sign that the country’s fragile peace is unraveling as fears of a return to full-scale civil war haunt the world’s youngest nation.

The town of Akobo, near the Ethiopian border, was completely deserted by Sunday, with the South Sudan People’s Defense Force urging civilians, aid workers and United Nations peacekeepers to leave on Friday ahead of a planned offensive.

“The town is now almost empty,” said Nhial Lew, a local humanitarian official. “Women, children and the elderly have left Ethiopia and crossed over.” By Sunday evening, they could hear the conflict winding down. “We are hearing the sound of machine guns approaching,” he told the Associated Press news agency.

Sena’s deadline expires Monday afternoon.

The order extends a government counteroffensive that began in January and dubbed Operation Enduring Peace, and has displaced more than 280,000 people across Jonglei state since December, when opposition forces began seizing government positions.

The UN’s human rights commission in South Sudan has warned of the possibility of a “return to full-scale war” if the country’s leadership does not take the challenges it faces more seriously.

“There is an urgent need for coordinated national, regional and international re-engagement to prevent further mass atrocity crimes, institutional collapse and the destruction of South Sudan’s fragile transition,” the report said.

Considered a relatively safe haven and home to more than 82,000 displaced people, Akobo is one of the last remaining strongholds of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, or SPLM-IO, loyal to South Sudan’s jailed former vice president Riek Machari.

Two UN planes evacuated more humanitarian personnel on Sunday, although the International Committee of the Red Cross has not yet pulled its staff from a surgical unit run by a local hospital, where injured patients are still being treated.

“We are concerned for our patients,” said county health director Dual Dive. “We tried to make a plan to get them to safety, but we didn’t have enough fuel.”

The offensive comes amid a widespread breakdown of a 2018 peace deal that ended a civil war between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting Machar that has killed an estimated 400,000 people and forced millions from their homes.

Machar has been under house arrest in the capital Juba since March 2025, facing charges of treason and murder that his supporters say are politically motivated.

His arrest coincided with a sharp rise in armed opposition activity, and a UN inquiry found that South Sudan’s leaders were “systematically dismantling” the accord.

South Sudanese researcher John Pospisil told Al Jazeera that there have been clashes across the country between groups linked to the two factions.

Tens of thousands were killed in the north

On Sunday, at least 169 people were killed, including 90 civilians, including women and children, when armed men attacked Abimnom County in the north of the country.

Local administrators blamed the attack on elements of the White Army, historically allied to Machar, along with SPLM-IO-aligned forces. The group denied any involvement. More than 1,000 people sought refuge at the UN base in the region.

“This kind of violence puts civilians at grave risk and must stop immediately,” said Anita Kiki Gbeho of the UN Mission in South Sudan.

Targeting aid agencies operating in the conflict zone, Doctors Without Borders, by its French initials MSF, said on Monday 26 of its staff were unaccounted for, a month after government airstrikes destroyed a hospital in the town of Lankin and ransacked an isolation facility in Pierre.

Crews reached described “devastation, violence and extreme hardship”. This is the 10th attack on an MSF facility in 12 months.

“Medical workers should never be targeted,” said Yashoverdhan, the charity’s head of mission in South Sudan, who uses only one name.

Pospisil said the crisis exposed the weakness of Kiir’s grip on power.

“The state is literally collapsing,” Pospisil said, referring to the convergence of conflict in the country and the seniority of the president, whose status has raised questions.

Pospisil said the outcome of Machar’s ongoing trial will shape what’s next.