Germany has temporarily closed its embassy in South Sudan's capital Juba because of rising tensions that have brought the East African country to the verge of civil war, the German foreign ministry said on Saturday.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir this week sacked the governor of Upper Nile state, where clashes have escalated between government troops and an ethnic militia he accuses of allying with his rival, First Vice President Riek Machar.

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The standoff has heightened concerns that the world's newest nation could slide back into conflict some seven years after its emergence from a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

"After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is once again on the brink of civil war," the German foreign ministry wrote on x.

"President Kiir and Vice President Machar are plunging the country into a spiral of violence. It's their responsibility to end this senseless violence & finally implement the peace agreement."

South Sudan's United Nations peacekeeping chief, Nicholas Haysom, has also said he is concerned the country is "on the brink of relapse into civil war".