Rival forces loyal to the president, Salva Kiir, and to the vice-president, Riek Machar, had battled each other using anti-aircraft guns, artillery attack helicopters and tanks since Thursday, nearly five years to the day after South Sudan declared independence from Sudan with promises of aid and support from world powers.
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“The president has reiterated his commitment to the continued implementation of the [peace] agreement in letter and spirit, and thus issues an order of cessation of hostilities with immediate effect”, Information Minister Michael Makuei said on state television at 6:00pm local time.
Machar, a former rebel, then asked troops loyal to him to stop fighting.
A ceasefire is holding in South Sudan’s capital after deadly violence escalated in the past week.
The diplomat was reacting to reports quoting the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, who described the situation in South Sudan as a result of a failed leadership in the country.
“The Security Council took a decision to evacuate German, European and other citizens from South Sudan”, Sawsan Chebli said, adding that there are around 100 German citizens.
Commercial flights to and from South Sudan’s capital, Juba, have been canceled after fighting flared in the country, though charter flights have been evacuating aid workers and other foreign citizens. Clashes that erupted last week have so far killed almost 300 people, including several dozen civilians, before a ceasefire took effect on Tuesday.
Two days after a cease-fire quelled most of the fighting in the capital of the world’s youngest country, the situation on Wednesday remained dire for civilians displaced by the clashes.
Mr. Machar’s forces have fled the city, according to an opposition official, who described the violence as a coup against the East African country’s transitional administration by factions opposed to the power-sharing peace deal.
There has been no estimate so far of civilian or military casualties from the heavy clashes Sunday and Monday but Adama Dieng, the United Nations’ Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, said some civilians “were reportedly targeted based on their ethnicity”.
“We condemn all acts of violence without exception”.
Kiir is a member of the Dinka tribe, while Machar is a Nuer, and the conflict has split the country along ethnic lines.
That was followed by hours of violent confrontations on Friday evening that left “over 300 soldiers” dead, according to Makuei.
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Despite attempts to de-escalate the situation in South Sudan, people like Reech Malual, 28, believe the two leaders need to be held accountable for the recent bloodshed. As fighting raged into 2015, tens of thousands of people were reported killed, and an estimated 2 million people fled their homes. While there is hope, people are afraid that the civil war scenario “will be repeating itself”.
