A flare-up in violence in South Sudan this month is raising fears that a fragile peace deal reached last year will be derailed, re-igniting the war that has engulfed the country since 2013. By Peter Martell (AFP/File)

Malakal (South Sudan) (AFP) - At least 56 rebels and four government soldiers were killed over the weekend as heavy clashes erupted in northeastern South Sudan, an army spokesman said Monday.

"The dead bodies of the rebels confirmed after count was 56 ... on our side we lost four SPLA fighters and twenty were wounded," said Sudan People's Liberation Army spokesman Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang. </s> At least 14 people have been killed in South Sudan after new fighting erupted between government forces and the main rebel group.

Lam Paul Gabriel Lam, the SPLM-IO rebel group's spokesman, told Reuters news agency on Saturday during the past two days the army has bombed rebel-held areas around Raga - a northwestern town near the border with Sudan and Central African Republic.

"Yesterday our forces decided to go and raid Raga," he said. "Around 14 people were counted killed but many are injured. We had one soldier killed with some injuries."

Santo Domic Chol, the government's military spokesman, said he was in Raga and would provide information later on.

The United Nations, which has a large peacekeeping force in the East African nation, confirmed the latest outbreak of violence.

"Fresh fighting has broken out between government and opposition forces in a number of locations including Raga in the west of South Sudan, Waat in Jonglei to the east, and in the area of Wunkur and Tonga in the northern Upper Nile region," the UN said in a statement.

Aid workers flee

The surge in fighting in eastern South Sudan has forced 60 aid workers to flee, hurting efforts to help desperate civilians in the famine-hit nation, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said on Saturday,.

Three UN World Food Programme workers were killed this week while trying to get to a supply warehouse amid fighting between rebel and government troops near the western city of Wau.

"There are no words left to explain the level of frustration and outrage I feel regarding the continued attacks against humanitarians in South Sudan who are simply trying to help the civilians suffering as a result of this conflict," said Eugene Owusu, OCHA coordinator, in a statement.

"Separately, 60 humanitarian workers have had to relocate from multiple locations in Jonglei yesterday and today - including Waat and Walgak - due to intensified conflict in the area."

The outbreak of violence in the eastern Jonglei region came after fierce clashes in southern Pajok and western Wau in the past two weeks.

According to a tally of UN figures and deaths that witnesses reported to AFP, 101 people were killed in the two towns.

OPINION: South Sudan not facing 'genocide', but violence is constant

The UN peacekeeping mission UNMISS, which has been blocked from accessing some conflict zones, said 13,500 people had fled to their base near Wau this week. More than 3,000 others were seeking refuge at a Catholic church compound.

Moustapha Soumare, the special representative for the UN secretary general in South Sudan, on Saturday called for a halt to fighting, urging "all parties to prove their commitment to peace".

"They must show restraint and demonstrate their responsibility to ensure the sanctity of life of all South Sudanese citizens," he said in a statement.

Oil-rich South Sudan has been riven by violence since 2013, when President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer.

The political showdown quickly split along ethnic lines and has drawn many tribes into a complex patchwork of conflict. </s> At least 16 people have been killed in South Sudan as militiamen targeted civilians based on their ethnicity.

Witnesses say the Dinka militiamen, aligned with South Sudan's government, went house to house Monday in the town of Wau searching for people from the local Luo and Fertit ethnic groups. Residents say streets were deserted Monday as families hid inside their homes.

The United Nations mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, said its workers saw "the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were 10 people who had been injured."

U.N. officials have repeatedly warned that South Sudan is at risk of genocide.

U.N. officials say the killings were in retaliation for a rebel attack on government forces in Wau state on Sunday that killed two officers.

UNMISS said about 3,000 people, mostly women and children, had fled to a Catholic Church in town. It said 84 people had sought protection in a civilian encampment protected by U.N. peacekeepers. Residents told reporters that army soldiers were blocking the main road to the encampment, preventing most people from reaching the site.

South Sudan has been beset by violence for more than three years because of a political rivalry between the young country's two leaders.

The power struggle between President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer, broke out in December 2013, after the president accused Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup.

Fighting has split the country along ethnic lines, displaced more than two million people from their homes, and caused food shortages in many areas. </s> Malakal. At least 56 rebels and four government soldiers were killed over the weekend as heavy clashes erupted in northeastern South Sudan, an army spokesman said Monday.

Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang accused forces aligned with former vice president Riek Machar of attacking government troops near the second largest city of Malakal.

“The rebels of Riek Machar attacked us in two places of our defence, that is Wajwok and Lelo, and we heavily impacted on them. The dead bodies of the rebels confirmed after count was 56,” he said, adding that the clashes began Friday evening and ended on Saturday.

Forces loyal to President Salva Kiir invited journalists to the region on Sunday to show they were in control of the area, and an AFP photographer reported seeing up to 40 bodies in the places he could access.

South Sudan, which gained independence in July 2011, descended into war just two and a half years later when Kiir in December 2013 accused his former deputy and political rival Machar of plotting a coup.

Numerous attempts to shore up a fragile truce failed, and in a major setback to peace efforts, fierce clashes erupted in Juba on July 8 this year between Kiir’s forces and those loyal to Machar. (AFP)

The international community has expressed deep concern over a spread in violence since the July clashes, which pushed the number of refugees from the war-scarred nation past the one-million mark, according to the UNHCR.

In a further blow to peace hopes, Machar last month urged “a popular armed resistance” against his rival’s government.

Machar, who fled to Khartoum after the July fighting, last week left for South Africa for medical tests.

An influential group of South Sudanese politicians known as the ‘former detainees’ after their arrest when war broke out in 2013, warned last week that “the country is on the edge of a precipice”.

They said they were “greatly disturbed by the recent increase of war and violent conflict all over agin; its ever deepening intensity and level of brutality; an apparently all-pervasive and creeping sense of resentment and hate”.(AFP) </s> South Sudan's army is deploying more forces around the country's largest still operational oilfield after at least 56 people died in fresh fighting, Defense Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk said.

Government troops clashed with rebels Oct. 14 near Malakal town in the African nation's oil-rich Eastern Nile state, Juuk said Monday by phone from the capital, Juba. He said the violence in the country's northeast was instigated by a militia leader previously affiliated with former vice president and rebel chief Riek Machar. There was no independent confirmation of the fighting.

"Small pockets" of insurgents are moving toward the Paloch oilfield and could be planning to attack production facilities, according to Juuk. Similar violence in the north claimed at least 60 lives in the past week, the army said Friday.

A civil war that began in South Sudan in December 2013 has left tens of thousands of people dead, with a peace agreement that saw Machar join a transitional government thrown into turmoil in July, when renewed violence forced him from the capital. Crude output in a country with sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest estimated reserves, has fallen to about 130,000 barrels per day since the conflict began. </s> At least 16 civilians have lost their lives and several others sustained injuries in clashes between government troops and armed rebel forces in South Sudan, official reports say, PressTV reported.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement that the fighting had stemmed from a Sunday ambush of the South Sudanese government troops near the country’s second largest city of Wau and had led to clashes the following day.

"The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured," the statement said.

Reports said at least 3,000 residents of Wau, mostly women and children, had sought shelter in a Catholic church, while another 84 took refuge at a UN protection site to escape the killings.

Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the country plunged into civil war in 2013.

The city is some 650 kilometers from the capital Juba.

UNMISS noted that troops, tanks and equipment from Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) had been deployed to areas controlled by the rebels in the southwestern part of Wau last week.

South Sudan gained independence in July 2011, but descended into a bloody civil war in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup against him. The two sides then got involved in a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the impoverished country along ethnic lines between the rival communities of Dinka and Nuer, killing thousands of people.

A peace agreement convinced Machar to return to Juba, but a new wave of fighting broke out again in the African country in July 2016.

Machar is currently in exile in South Africa after fleeing the new spate of violence. Numerous international attempts to reach a truce between the warring sides have failed.

The persisting conflict has so far killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions of others from their homes, divided much of the population along ethnic lines and crippled agriculture. According to the United Nations, the impoverished country is also facing famine. </s> No fewer than 16 civilians have been killed and ten others injured in South Sudan’s northwestern town of Wau following sporadic fighting between government-backed militia and local youth, the UN mission said Monday.The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said the fighting started after a number of government SPLA soldiers were killed in an ambush on Sunday in the south of Wau.“The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured,” the UNMISS said in a statement.The UN mission said 84 people have arrived at the UN protection of civilian site, while an influx of at least 3,000 people into a Catholic church in the town, mostly women and children, has been reported.“The fighting follows the movement of SPLA troops, tanks and equipment towards the southwestern part of Wau late last week,” UNMISS said.South Sudan has been devastated by civil strife that broke out in December 2013. Tens of thousands of South Sudanese have been killed, with over 2 million displaced since then.A peace deal signed in August 2015 led to the formation of a transitional unity government, but was again shattered by fresh violence in July, 2016. </s> Khartoum, Dec 27: Clashes between Sudanese anti-riot police and protesters in demonstrations against a rise in bread prices have killed 19 people, including two security force personnel, the government said Thursday.

"Nineteen people lost their lives in the incidents including two from security forces," government spokesman Boshara Juma said on state television, adding that 219 people were wounded.

Sudanese authorities had previously said that eight people have been killed in clashes in Khartoum and several other cities since the protests began on December 19. </s> At least 16 killed in fighting in South Sudan second city



 Juba, South Sudan | AFP | At least 16 civilians were killed in fighting Monday between government troops and rebels in South Sudan’s second-largest city Wau, the United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNMISS) said in a statement.

The violence stemmed from an ambush Sunday of government troops near the city, leading to clashes in the city the following day, UNMISS said.

“The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured,” the statement said.

Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the country descended into civil war in 2013.

The city itself has remained under the control of forces loyal to Machar’s arch-enemy President Salva Kiir throughout.

UNMISS said troops, tanks and equipment from the SPLA national army had moved towards areas controlled by the rebels in the south-western part of Wau late last week.

At least 3,000 people — mostly women and children — sought shelter in a Catholic church, while another 84 had sought refuge at an UNMISS Protection of Civilians site.

Civilians who spoke to AFP described targeted killings in the city some 650 kilometres (404 miles) from the capital Juba.

“The (people) who came are reporting to us that there are SPLA soldiers in the residential areas,” said Moses Peter, a priest, who confirmed that up to 3,000 people were sheltering in his church.

“They are shooting and are targeting certain groups of people and they are even looting houses.”

Local resident Tibur Erynio, 41, said a tally of the dead from his neighbours stood at 18, most of them from minority ethnic groups the Jur and Balanda.

The civilians were “killed because they are suspected of supporting rebels,” said Erynio, adding that this was not true.

Erynio said shops and markets in the city’s southern half were closed and the government had told people to stay indoors.

“You can only see people are moving, running either to the church for protection” or to a UN peacekeeping compound, he said.

One local resident, who asked not to be named, told AFP he had found his brother “lying in blood after he was shot”, and had counted five other dead bodies.

Another, who gave her name as Mary Joseph said: “we saw three people lying dead in different places.”

The International Committee for the Red Cross said it was rushing surgical teams to the city to assist the wounded.

The military and rebels gave conflicting accounts of the violence.

Military spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol said the fighting started as government troops were trying to rout rebels from strongholds in the countryside.

Forces loyal to Machar took cover among civilians when the skirmishes reached Wau town on Monday, Domic said.

Four prison guards were killed in the fighting, Domic said, without elaborating.

A spokesman for the rebels William Gatjiath Deng said the fighting stemmed from an ambush laid by the rebels outside of Wau on Sunday that left 35 soldiers from a government-aligned militia dead.

The surviving pro-regime forces returned to Wau, where Deng said they killed 50 civilians in “house-to-house” raids.

Both accounts were impossible to verify.

Deng said the troops were from the same militia responsible for fighting last week in the southern town of Pajok that forced 6,000 people to flee across the border to Uganda.

South Sudan’s leaders fought for decades for independence, but once they got it in 2011, civil war erupted in 2013 out of a power struggle between Kiir and his former deputy Machar.

At least 1.7 million people have fled the country because of the war, and 1.9 million are internally displaced.

The war has also created a man-made famine, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis.

The post At least 16 killed in fighting in South Sudan second city appeared first on The Independent Uganda:.

This post was syndicated from The Independent Uganda:. Click here to read the full text on the original website.

Also, Like us on facebook
Clashes between government troops and rebels in South Sudan, leave at least 56 people killed.