The United Nations missions in South Sudan, the African Union, and other peace partners are engaged in intense shuttle diplomacy to prevent the country from relapsing into civil war, a UN official said.

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission held a meeting in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, exploring ways to convince the parties to pull back from the brink.

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“The collective message of the region and the international community is the same. We remain convinced that there is only one way out of the cycle of conflict, and that is to return to the Revitalized Peace Agreement, in letter and spirit,” Nicholas Haysom, special representative of the UN Secretary-General and head of UNMISS, said in a joint statement issued in Juba.

He said the political and security situation in South Sudan has significantly deteriorated since the White Army, a militia allied with the opposition, overran Nasir barracks in Upper Nile State previously occupied by the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces on March 4.

In retaliation, Haysom said, communities across Upper Nile are being subjected to persistent aerial bombardment, which has caused significant casualties and horrific injuries. Humanitarian agencies estimated that at least 63,000 people have fled the area.

The UN official said rampant misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech are also ratcheting up tensions and driving ethnic divisions and fear, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Given this grim situation, we are left with no other conclusion but to assess that South Sudan is teetering on the edge of a relapse into civil war,” Haysom said, urging immediate and collective intervention to ensure that war is averted.

He said efforts of the international community to broker a peaceful solution can only succeed if the parties themselves are willing to engage and put the interests of their people ahead of their own, while the alternative is a slide into conflict that would erase all the hard-won gains made since the 2018 peace deal was signed.

To help prevent the relapse into war, Haysom said the parties should strictly adhere to the ceasefire, release detained officials or treat them under legal process, immediately return to consensus-based decision-making, and resolve tensions through dialogue rather than military confrontation.

He encouraged President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar to meet to resolve their differences constructively and make a joint public statement that reassures all South Sudanese of their united, steadfast commitment to peace.