NAIROBI, 04 September 2021, (TON): South Sudan is witnessing a “new wave of repression,” global rights group Amnesty International warned, with many activists now in hiding after a string of arrests in the conflict-wracked country.

The world’s newest nation has suffered from chronic instability since independence in 2011, with a coalition of civil society groups urging the government to step down, saying they have “had enough.”

According to rights groups “the authorities have taken a tough line against such demands in recent weeks, arresting eight activists as well as detaining three journalists and two employees of a pro-democracy non-profit.”

Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, said “we are witnessing a new wave of repression emerging in South Sudan targeting the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.”

The clampdown followed a declaration last month by the People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) calling for a peaceful public uprising.

The PCCA had urged the public to join its protest on Monday in the capital Juba but the city fell silent as the authorities branded the demonstration “illegal” and deployed heavily-armed security forces to monitor the streets for any sign of opposition.

Muchena said in a statement “peaceful protests must be facilitated rather than cracked down upon or prevented with arrests, harassment, heavy security deployment or any other punitive measures.”

The rights group noted that many activists had faced harassment since the aborted demonstration, “with some suspecting they were being surveilled by security forces.”