Raila Odinga meets President Museveni in Uganda hours after holding talks with Kiir on
South Sudan crisis in Juba, March 28, 2025. /RAILA ODINGA/XODM leader Raila Odinga has arrived in Uganda from South Sudan where he met President Kiir earlier on Friday over rising tensions in the world’s youngest nation.
Raila landed in Entebbe hours after holding a “detailed and fruitful discussion” with Kiir in the capital Juba.
“Landed in Entebbe, Uganda for a briefing session with President Yoweri Museveni following my factfinding mission on the political situation in South Sudan. I remain hopeful that a peaceful way out of the political uncertainty in South Sudan is possible, and further escalation can be avoided,” he said in a statement that he posted on X.
After meeting Kiir, Raila expressed confidence that the crisis in South Sudan would be resolved amicably.
Raila said he was encouraged by the possibility of a resolution to the conflict.
“I will be briefing other regional leaders and President William Ruto on my mission and a possible roadmap to sustainable peace and stability,” he stated.
On Thursday, President William Ruto telephoned Kirr following reports of the arrest of First Vice President Riek Machar and announced that he had dispatched a special envoy to try and ease tensions.
Ruto noted that he consulted President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali before making the decision.
“Had a phone call with President Salva Kiir on the situation leading to the arrest and detention of 1st vice President Riek Machar in South Sudan. After consultations with President Museveni and PM Abiy, I'm sending a special envoy to South Sudan to engage, try deescalate and brief us back,” he wrote on X.
Raila flew to Juba on Friday at mid-day.
“The Special Envoy is presently engaged with the escalating situation in our sisterly country, including traveling to Juba to convey the President’s message to President Kiir and Vice President Machar as well as to critical stakeholders in Juba,” Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Song’oei said.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has called on all parties to exercise restraint amid reports of the arrest of Machar.
UMISS chief Nicholas Haysom said the country risked losing the “hard-won gains of the past seven years” if the world’s newest nation returned to “a state of war”, following reports that Machar was arrested at his residence in the capital, Juba.
“Tonight, the country’s leaders stand on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict or taking the country forward towards peace, recovery and democracy in the spirit of the consensus that was reached in 2018 when they signed and committed to implementing a Revitalised Peace Agreement,” Haysom said in a statement.
Machar’s party has said the arrest has effectively collapsed the 2018 peace deal that ended the country's five-year civil war.
Sudan People's Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM/IO) said an armed convoy led by top security officials entered Machar's residence in the capital, Juba, and disarmed his bodyguards late on Wednesday.
The party said Machar was detained alongside his wife Angelina Teny, who is the country's interior minister.
The UN has been warning that South Sudan is on the brink of a return to civil war following an escalation of conflict between Machar and the president that has been building for weeks.
