The South Sudan government said on Friday First Vice President Riek Machar was "under house arrest," two days after he was detained, as a former Kenyan premier arrived in Juba to mediate the crisis threatening to end the fragile peace deal between rival factions.

Machar's arrest by forces loyal to President Salva Kiir prompted UN Chief Antonio Guterres on Friday to call on warring parties to "put down the weapons" and "put all the people of South Sudan first," as the conflict risks plunging the world's youngest nation back into civil war.

Kiir "directed the placement of Dr Riek Machar under house arrest," information minister and government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth said in a statement, in the first official comments since Machar's detention.

Despite the arrest, Juba appeared calm on Friday, with shops open and people on the streets, an AFP correspondent said.

Makuei blamed Machar for clashes in recent weeks in Nassir County, accusing him of been "agitating" his forces "to rebel against the government with the aim of disrupting peace so that elections are not held and South Sudan goes........

© International Business Times