ABOUT 300,000 people have fled South Sudan so far in 2025 as armed conflict between rival leaders threatens civil war, the United Nations warned today.

In a new report the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said the conflict between President Salva Kiir and suspended First Vice-President Riek Machar risks a return to full-scale war.

The commission’s report called for urgent regional intervention.

South Sudan has been engulfed by political instability and ethnic violence since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

The new nation was plunged into civil war in 2013 when President Kiir dismissed Mr Machar as vice-president.

The pair agreed a ceasefire in 2017, but their fragile power-sharing agreement has been unravelling for months and was suspended last month amid outbreaks of violence among forces loyal to each.

Mr Machar was placed under house arrest in March after fighting between the military and an ethnic Nuer militia in the north-east town of Nasir killed dozens and displaced more than 80,000.

Mr Machar was charged with treason, murder and crimes against humanity in September although his lawyer argued the court lacked jurisdiction. Mr Machar rejects the charges, labelling them a “political witch-hunt.”

President Kiir suspended Mr Machar in early October.

Renewed clashes in South Sudan have driven almost 150,000 people to Sudan, where a civil war has raged for two years and a similar number into neighbouring Uganda, Ethiopia and as far as Kenya.

More than 2.5 million South Sudanese refugees now live in neighbouring countries while two million remain internally displaced.

A UN report in September detailed significant corruption, alleging that $1.7 billion (£1.2 billion) from an oil-for-roads programme remains unaccounted for while three-quarters of the country faces severe food shortages.