Dozens of people have been killed in the South Sudanese capital of Juba following clashes between forces under First Vice President Riek Machar and South Sudanese Army under President Salva Kiir, officials told Anadolu Agency Saturday. All foreign and local International Monetary Fund staff and their families were evacuated as the office relocated temporarily to Nairobi, Kenya, said Philippe Egoume Bossogo, head of the International Monetary Fund office in South Sudan.
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More than 150 soldiers died in fighting between South Sudan’s army and former rebels in the capital Juba on Friday evening, a spokesman for the former rebels said.
“The chairperson congratulates the president, the first vice-president, and the vice-president for the swift action they jointly undertook the same night in appealing for calm in the aftermath of the 8 July incident, thus demonstrating their leadership in face of a very tense and explosive situation”. The majority of the bodies were of soldiers, the first doctor said.
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”.
The government side had no immediate comment on the situation in Juba.
Africa’s newest nation is emerging from a two-year civil war which started in December 2013 after Kiir sacked Machar as vice president.
Mr Kiir and Mr Machar described Friday’s violence as “unfortunate”.
On Saturday morning tension remained high in the city, with a heavy security presence and few civilians on the streets of Juba.
A World Vision aid worker, Jeremiah Young, told local media that the “atmosphere was tense” and residents remained anxious that events could “deteriorate”.
In April last, Machar, accompanied by more than 1,300 of his fighters had arrived in Juba under a peace deal to join Kiir in the formation of a coalition government seeking to end more than two years of bloody civil war in the country.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday the latest violence highlighted a lack of commitment to the peace process and urged the country’s leaders to end the fighting, discipline military leaders and work together to implement the peace deal.
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“I am also gravely concerned by the resurgence of violence in Wau and Bentiu, which could lead to a dramatic deterioration of the security situation across the country”, Ban said.
