While President Salva Kiir and his Vice, Riek Machar, were in a security meeting on Friday to discuss the tragedy that left some of Kiir’s soldiers dead the day before, an even bigger clash involving the use of artilleries and tanks ensued between the soldiers in Kiir and Machar’s camp.
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“I inform all troops who have been fighting and have been defending themselves that they should observe the ceasefire and stay in position”, Vice President Riek Machar said on Eye Radio Juba, shortly after Kir had ordered an immediate unilateral ceasefire.
The worldwide community must also impose targeted sanctions against civilian and military officials reasonably suspected of responsibility for crimes under global law or human rights violations, the organisation said. But ethnic tensions and competing economic interests remained, sowing the seeds of renewed conflict.
That hasn’t happened and the United States, Canada, Japan and other foreign governments have begun emptying their diplomatic mission of non-essential staff.
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said “more than 7,000 people” had sought shelter at two compounds in Juba while fighting was also reported in the south-eastern town of Torit where thousands fled to a UN base.
The country descended into conflict in December 2013 after Kiir accused Machar, his former deputy who he had sacked earlier that year, of plotting a coup.
Hundreds of fighters have been killed as South Sudan teetered on the brink of a return to civil war on Sunday.
“My department is monitoring the situation closely and our embassy team in Addis Ababa is liaising with Irish citizens in the area who are registered with the department”, he said.
“This senseless violence is unacceptable and has the potential of reversing the progress made so far in the peace process”, Ban said. Shots were also heard outside one of the U.N.’s civilian protection facilities in the city’s southeast.
President Kiir and former rebel leader Machar signed a peace accord previous year and formed an uneasy transitional coalition government. United Nations peacekeepeers have been deployed in South Sudan since the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011. India is planning to evacuate its citizens, according to a tweet by its external affairs minister. Water tanks have not been able to bring water to the tens of thousands sheltering inside the base. But fighting continued despite the peace agreement and the current clashes in Juba threaten to plunge the parts of South Sudan that had been relatively stable back into violence.
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The latest round of violence followed deadly clashes between the rival factions on Friday and Sunday in the capital city.
