The president of South Sudan and his opposition rival both called Monday for a cease-fire in a conflict that has seen fierce clashes between their forces spread from the capital to a southeastern town.
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Violence between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar clashed in the capital city, Juba, for days.
It is “hugely worrying” that the fighting appeared to be spreading outside the capital, the United Nations human rights office in Geneva said Tuesday.
The UN has called for an immediate arms embargo, as well as attack helicopters to strengthen its peacekeeping force. The dead included a number of civilians and a Chinese peacekeeper, reports said.
Despite, the call for calm, gun fighting has continued to escalate, claiming lives. Machar and commanders loyal to him fled to the countryside, and tens of thousands of people died in the conflict that followed.
There was further exchange of heavy gunfire on Sunday morning with some artillery shells landing in United Nations compounds, and further reports of fighting on Monday 11 July. Menon told the newspaper that around 2,500 peacekeepers were stationed in the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the U.N. peacekeeping force in Sudan, but the Indian soldiers were engaged in their bases. “Rarely has a country’s conduct squandered so much promise so quickly”.
On Sunday the Security Council asked neighboring countries to send more peacekeepers to South Sudan. “I want to reciprocate the declaration of unilateral ceasefire”, Mr Machar said.
Any who resisted the order, by loitering or looting, would be arrested, he said.
Why has fighting resumed? Five SPLA soldiers were reported killed in the fighting.
Mr Machar only returned to government in April following an August 2015 peace agreement with Mr Kiir. They are meant to hold joint patrols but have yet to work together and remain stationed in separate areas.
Tens of thousands have died in more than two years of civil war, close to three million have been forced from their homes and almost five million survive on emergency food rations. “The idea of stationing two armies, still hostile, within or on the edges of Juba, and entrusting the security of the city to them, has been shown to be profoundly flawed”. The violence was especially worrying to the global community because of the ethnic tensions involved, as many supporters of the president were Dinka and supporters of Machar, now a rebel leader, were mostly Nuer.
Will it become a new civil war?
What can the worldwide community do?
This is indeed a troubling time for the South Sudanese people who have suffered the brunt of war since 1954, and had finally tested peace after getting independence from Sudan in 2011.
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Ramaphosa said: “We condemn this outbreak of violence in the strongest terms possible and call for the immediate restoration of peace in the country”.
