South Sudan’s festering civil war risks spiraling into genocide, according to the UN’s Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, who cited recent examples of ethnically targeted rape, civilians being killed with machetes, and villages being burned to the ground.

Adama Dieng warned Friday of a "strong risk of violence escalating along ethnic lines with the potential for genocide,” speaking at a news conference in Juba after visiting South Sudan for five days.

Dieng said South Sudan is awash with weapons, has an undisciplined military, and is in a humanitarian and economic crisis in which civilians are desperate for employment.

‘Genocide is a process,” said Dieng, adding that all the elements are present for a disaster.

The accusation that South Sudan is at risk of genocide is "very unfortunate,” Minister of Information Michael Makuei told The Associated Press.

"I don’t agree with him. It is a negative report and it won’t be of any help. Here in South Sudan what is happening has nothing to do with genocide,” he said.

South Sudan is the world's newest country and there were high hopes that it would have peace and stability after its split from neighboring Sudan in 2011. But the country plunged into ethnic violence in 2013 when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, started battling those loyal to his former vice president Riek Machar, a Nuer.

A peace deal signed in August has not stopped the fighting. Kiir said in a recent speech that the army was mostly comprised of his Dinka tribe because other ethnic groups are part of the rebels.

To stop South Sudan's slide into ethnically based violence, Dieng proposed a strategy of reconciliation and dialogue to build trust in the East African nation.

But even as Dieng, the UN expert on genocide, spoke, a radio station was shut down by South Sudan’s National Security Service.

Eye Radio is one of South Sudan’s largest national radio stations and known for its reggae music and messages of unity and peace. It is funded in part by the US Agency for International Development.

On Friday, three officials from the country's security service seized the keys to Eye Radio’s studios, told journalists to leave, and ordered the head of the station to report to security officials, said Nichola Mandil, a senior journalist for the station.

A spokesman for the security service declined to give an explanation for the shutdown.

Agencies