“The two Commanders-in-Chief, His Excellency President Salva Kiir and His Excellency First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar, have called for calm and vowed to restraint their respective forces” said Machar’s spokesperson.
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A United Nations worker was also reportedly injured in a separate shooting and a U.S. embassy vehicle was also shot at, according to Roman.
President Salva Kiir and former rebel leader Riek Machar, who is now vice president, called for calm in comments to journalists at the presidential State House, one Reuters witness at State House said, adding that shooting could be heard nearby.
The rival armed factions both took up positions in April as part of the peace deal, which saw Mr Machar return to the country.
South Sudan marks five years of independence on July 9 with celebrations cancelled in the face of a deepening hunger crisis and fears the world’s youngest country could slide back into war.
“British Embassy staff have been on lock down and we are reducing to only essential staff in the country”, it said in a statement on its website.
Two other soldiers were also wounded in the shootout at a checkpoint in the city’s Gudele neighbourhood, said army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang. Koang said five soldiers were killed.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has condemned the indiscriminate shooting attack on a senior United Nations agency official in South Sudanese capital Juba on Thursday. The doctor insisted on speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety.
The two sides are meant to hold joint patrols to keep peace in the city, where violence broke out in December 2013 after a skirmish between soldiers in a barracks.
A spokesman for Machar’s SPLM-O militia, William Gatjiath Deng, said that faction had counted 35 dead and “80 people from the government forces”.
In a statement Friday, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission that oversees the cease-fire said the recent fighting in many parts of the country could be in “flagrant violation” of the peace deal.
Shots were fired at USA embassy vehicles Thursday night and personnel at the embassy in South Sudan were briefly ordered to shelter in place after gunfire and explosions Friday rocked the capital of Juba, including near the Presidential Palace, State Department officials told CNN.
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Earlier on Thursday, mortar and machine-gun fire in the northwestern city of Wau forced hundreds of civilians to flee to a United Nations base for safety, where nearly 20,000 people were already sheltering after heavy fighting broke out in the city late last month.
