Juba: South Sudan has indicated its willingness to accept more deportees from the United States, as communicated to the Trump administration. This development was reported by Politico on Wednesday.

According to Anadolu Agency, this statement comes in the wake of the recent deportation of eight migrants from the US to South Sudan, of which only one was a South Sudanese national. The group had been held at a US military base in Djibouti prior to their relocation to the East African nation.

In exchange for accepting more deportees, Juba is requesting that Washington lift sanctions on a senior official, restore revoked US visas, unfreeze a US-based bank account, and assist in legal actions against First Vice President Riek Machar, who is currently under house arrest. However, the Trump administration has so far declined these requests, as noted in the report.

The tension between the US and South Sudan escalated in April when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed a visa ban on South Sudanese passport holders and stopped new arrivals. The US accused South Sudan of hindering deportation efforts after initially rejecting an individual whom Juba claimed was Congolese but later accepted.

South Sudan, which became independent from Sudan in 2011, has been in turmoil since December 2013. This unrest began when President Salva Kiir Mayardit dismissed then-Vice President Machar, accusing him of orchestrating a coup.

Despite peace agreements signed in 2018 and 2022, stability remains elusive for the country. In February, a militia known as the White Army, primarily comprised of Machar's Nuer ethnic group, took control of a town in Upper Nile State. In retaliation, authorities arrested several generals and ministers associated with Machar's Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition.