The Mystery Man Behind the US Outburst Against South Sudan
Published: 14/Apr/2025
Source: Pass Blue
By Dulcie Leimbach
South Sudan, Africa’s youngest country, is heading into the lean growing season, when hunger can peak. It is also embroiled in a nasty power brawl between its president and the vice president as fighting in the northeast escalates, driving people from their villages to survive. The country is experiencing its worst cholera outbreak in two decades while it has absorbed at least a million refugees fleeing the civil war raging in its northern neighbor, Sudan, since 2023.
In short, South Sudan is not an ideal destination for deportation. Yet, the United States is lashing out at the country amid the Trump administration’s overall war on immigration because of a technical muddle on a deportee. The transitional government of South Sudan itself may be edging into a civil war — again — with opponents, yet it quickly placated the US over the mix-up.
The confusion centers around one particular deportee involving not only the US and South Sudanese governments but also the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mix-up prompted US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to announce suddenly that the US is banning visas of passport holders from South Sudan and will further restrict its nationals from entering the US because the East African government failed to accept the “return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner,” he tweeted on April 5.
Read further: https://www.passblue.com/2025/04/14/the-mystery-man-behind-the-us-outburst-against-south-sudan/