The U.S. Embassy in Juba said it is organizing flights to evacuate non-essential staff and for all U.S. citizens wishing to leave South Sudan. It said “the security situation in Juba, the capital city of South Sudan has deteriorated since 07th July, 2016”.
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No gunfire or artillery was heard in Juba and evacuation flights for foreign nationals were able to leave the worldwide airport, although commercial flights were yet to resume. Embassies and aid organizations in South Sudan were trying to evacuate staff from the capital, Juba, on Tuesday as a precarious calm settle.
The Rev. John Chuol, a representative of Gatluak’s family, accused the soldiers of killing the 32-year-old for being from the Nuer tribe, the same ethnicity as opposition leader Riek Machar. An NEF official, who insisted on speaking on condition of anonymity since he feared for his safety, said a photo he saw of Gatluak’s body showed he was shot in the face and lying on his back.
Ms Pouilly noted that OHCHR is also deeply concerned at reports of civilians being prevented from seeking refuge in the premises of the UNMISS and, in some cases, being shot at while trying to do so, as well as reports that United Nations compounds and PoC sites have been directly caught in the fighting and apparently at times directly targeted.
“[The troops] are here to protect the embassy and to help us provide support for those Americans who want to depart from South Sudan at this time”, U.S. Ambassador Molly Phee to South Sudan said in an interview with the U.N. Mission in South Sudan.
Machar was permitted to return with around 1400 lightly-armed former rebel soldiers and Kiir was supposed to retain no more than 3400 armed forces, with the city being otherwise “demilitarised”. About 28 000 people had already been living there since 2013.
The German foreign ministry said that three Transall transport aircraft of Germany’s Bundeswehr were airlifting “German, European and global citizens” to Uganda.
Italy’s foreign ministry said air force aircraft landed Wednesday in Juba to evacuate 30 Italians who chose to leave.
The U.N. has about 12,000 peacekeeping troops and police officers in the country, and the Security Council is ready to ask for more from neighboring nations, according to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.
The Security Council said on Sunday it was ready to consider enhancing the United Nations peace-keeping mission in South Sudan and urged countries in the region to prepare to send additional troops if the council decides to increase the almost 13,500-strong force.
Jeremiah Young, an aid worker with World Vision, said he was not aware of any renewed fighting.
The conflict killed thousands of people, forced more than 2.5 million people from their homes and left nearly half the population of 11 million people struggling to find food. “As a continent we must respect the lives of our people and can not stand by as people in South Sudan continue to suffer by unimaginable proportions”, she said at the session held at Kigali Convention Centre.
“There is also a widespread food shortage this year, with some areas of South Sudan reportedly on the edge of starvation”, ADRA said.
Ladsous said he was particularly anxious by reports of government and rebel forces mobilizing near Malakal in the Upper Nile region and Leer in Unity state.
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Associated Press writers Charlton Doki in Kampala, Uganda, and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed.
