Embassies and aid organisations in South Sudan were moving to evacuate staff from Juba amid the tenuous ceasefire.
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A fragile ceasefire appeared to be holding in South Sudan’s capital Juba after four days of gun battles that have left hundreds of people dead and sent almost 40,000 fleeing.
South Sudan is now recovering from the five-day unrest that saw at least 272 people dead and over 40,000 others displaced.
Kiir and Machar have always been rivals in politics and on the battlefield.
Both officials said that while the cease-fire in Juba appears to be holding since it was declared Monday night, further clashes can not be ruled out.
The failure to demilitarize Juba city before arrival of first vice president, Riek Machar, and the delay in establishing contentment areas of the opposition’s SPLA-IO forces in greater Bahr El Gahzal and Equatoria regions is a setback to peace.
He says he believes the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, already has a strong enough military presence in his country.
A convoy of around 50 trucks escorted by machine gun-mounted armoured vehicles crossed the Ugandan border at Nimule to open up a secure corridor for fleeing civilians on the 200 kilometre Juba-Nimule road.
Amnesty International said South Sudan security forces were “deliberately blocking people from leaving the country”, describing this as “totally unacceptable”.
We can less than ever afford to sit idle as the people of South Sudan yet again bear the brunt of the intransigence of their leaders. “About 150 Indians are there who work in the oil wells and for them it’s easier to go towards Sudan where there are not much issues”, Singh said.
Sudan said it planned to evacuate more than 3,000 of its nationals living across South Sudan. “But this can only be sustained if the ceasefire holds”, said John McCue, IOM South Sudan Head of Operations.
Following the sudden change in plans of a large number of Indians, the External Affairs Ministry said those who had chosen to stay back would have to fend for themselves.
The two-year civil war started after clashes between rival soldiers in Juba and degenerated into nationwide conflict in which tens of thousands died.
The Rev. John Chuol, a representative of Gatluak’s family, said the 32-year-old journalist was targeted because he is a member of the Nuer tribe, the same ethnicity as opposition leader Riek Machar.
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According to the United Nations, there were some 114,000 South Sudanese refugees in neighboring countries before December 2013 but that figure has ballooned to 835,000 now.
