A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants

The United States once cheered the creation of South Sudan as an independent nation. Now the U.S. is being asked to explain why it appears to be deporting migrants from as far away as Vietnam to a chaotic country that's once again in danger of collapsing into civil war.

A U.S. judge ordered Trump administration officials to appear at an emergency hearing Wednesday to answer questions.

If the deportations are confirmed, that means people from Vietnam, Cuba and elsewhere are being sent to a nation they have no link to, thousands of miles from where they want to be. Vietnam's list of its embassies in Africa shows the closest one to South Sudan is in Tanzania, over 800 miles away.

South Sudan’s police spokesperson, Maj. Gen. James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that no migrants had arrived in the country and that if they do, they would be investigated and again “redeported to their correct country” if found not to be South Sudanese.

Recently, the Trump administration abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying the country’s government failed to accept the return of its citizens “in a timely manner.” South Sudan pushed back, saying the person in question was Congolese, but later said it would allow him into the country “in the spirit of maintaining friendly relations” with the U.S.

South Sudan’s government has struggled since independence from Sudan in 2011 to deliver many of the basic services of a state. Years of conflict have left the country heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance.

Here’s a look at South Sudan, whose own people had been granted U.S. temporary protected status because of insecurity at home.

The euphoria of independence turned to civil war two years later, when rival factions backing President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar opened fire on each other in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in 2013.

The two men’s tensions have been so much at the heart of the country’s insecurity that the late Pope Francis once took the extraordinary step of kneeling to kiss their feet in a plea for lasting peace.

Five years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. A peace deal reached in 2018 has been fragile and not fully implemented, to the frustration of the U.S. and other international backers. South Sudan still hasn’t held a long-delayed presidential election, and Kiir remains in power.

His rivalry with Machar is compounded by ethnic divisions. Machar has long regarded himself as destined for the presidency, citing a prophecy years ago by a seer from his ethnic group.

Earlier this year, the threat of war returned. Machar was arrested and allies in the government and military were detained following a major escalation that included airstrikes and an attack on a United Nations helicopter. Machar’s opposition party announced South Sudan’s peace deal was effectively over.

“Let’s not mince words: What we are seeing is darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 civil wars, which killed 400,000 people,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned.

Some Western countries have closed their embassies there while others, including the U.S., have reduced embassy staff. The U.S. Embassy's travel warning said that “violent crime, such as carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings are common throughout South Sudan, including Juba.”

The Trump administration’s pressure on South Sudan to take in deportees, including foreign ones, is in sharp contrast to Washington’s past warm embrace as its rebel leaders — including Kiir and Machar — fought for independence.

Now there is less support than ever for most of South Sudan's over 11 million people because of the cuts in U.S. aid.

Climate shocks including flooding have long caused mass displacement and closed schools. South Sudan’s health and education systems were already among the weakest in the world. Aid organizations had offered essential help.

South Sudan's government has long relied on oil production, but little money from that is seen, in part because of official corruption. Conflict in neighboring Sudan has affected landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports. Civil servants at times go months without being paid.

How South Sudan is equipped to handle migrants arriving abruptly from the U.S. is yet to be seen.