JUBA: South Sudan government forces and rebel troops clashed in oil-rich Unity State yesterday, President Salva Kiir said, days before the two sides are to hold talks to end a 10-month conflict that has ravaged the world’s youngest nation.
Kiir accused the rebels on yesterday of violating a ceasefire agreed in May and warned of more attacks by forces loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar. Rebel spokesman Lul Ruai Koang confirmed fighting occurred near the Unity State capital, Bentiu, but denied it was instigated by Machar’s troops.
More than 1 million people in South Sudan have fled their homes since December, when fighting erupted between troops backing Kiir and soldiers loyal to Machar. The European Union and the United States have sanctioned commanders from both sides for violating a ceasefire that was signed in January but swiftly crumbled.
“There is fighting in Bentiu and we also expect such action to erupt in different parts of Malakal,” Kiir told governors in the capital Juba. Malakal is the capital of Upper Nile State, South Sudan’s only other oil-producing region.
There are conflicting reports as to the location of fighting in the Unity State. United Nations spokesman Joe Contreras said the clashes took place about 30km north of Bentiu, but the state capital was largely quiet.
The violence between the two sides, triggered by a power struggle between the Kiir and Machar, has often followed ethnic faultlines, pitting Kiir’s Dinka against Machar’s Nuer.
Reuters
