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 (120 mile) Juba-Nimule road.
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The South Sudanese government was committed to the peace agreement signed in August 2015 that ended almost two years of civil war, said James Pitia Morgan, South Sudan’s permanent representative to the African Union.
A ceasefire between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar is holding for a second day in the capital, Juba.
The catastrophic impact of the civil war in a country that only won independence from Sudan five years ago has been worsened by the latest fighting.
Kiir on Thursday urged Machar to meet for talks to salvage peace.
President Barack Obama says he’s deployed 47 US troops to South Sudan amid a worrisome outbreak of fighting there. Aid workers can’t get to families in desperate need of help due to the security situation.
The U.N. refugee agency has expressed concern about the South Sudan-Uganda crossing, “where security is tightened on the South Sudan side”, and it called on all armed parties to allow safe passage.
But UNICEF said it had been able to take advantage of the lull in fighting to deliver 100,000 litres of water to fleeing citizens. Kiir’s decision to sack Machar in 2013 led to the civil war erupting a few months later.
Kiir and Machar have always been political and military rivals.
Machar’s return with a 1,400-strong bodyguard meant there were two hostile armies in the city.
Machar and Kiir were reported to have been in a meeting last week when fighting started.
The latest exchanges were apparently sparked by a shootout between President Kiir’s and Vice President Riek Machar’s bodyguards.
“We can not help South Sudan if their leaders are not willing to join forces to build their own nation”.
“Further clashes, therefore, can not be ruled out”, he said.
The UK, Germany, India, Japan, Italy and Uganda have been flying out their nationals on military and chartered planes, as commercial flights in and out of the country remain grounded.
“Yes, they have relocated the base, but they have remained within the vicinity of Juba area”, said James Gatdet Dak on Wednesday.
“He’s trying to survive. His life is in danger”, claimed Goi Jooyul Yol in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“Having worked so closely with Kiir and Machar in achieving independence, USA officials have been reluctant to acknowledge that their proteges haven’t lived up to expectations”, said J. Peter Pham, the director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.
Once they reach Thiruvananthapuram, the evacuated Keralites will be taken to their homes in three KSRTC buses, the department of Non Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) said.
“So this is what I also gave to his excellencies, I gave them that assurances, that I am ready to protect Dr. Machar if he comes to where I am”.
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No gunfire or artillery was heard in Juba and planes were seen leaving the global airport although commercial flights are yet to resume.
