Aid workers from different Non-Governmental Organizations in South Sudan arrive at Wilson airport in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, July 13, 2016 from Juba. “2 C-17s proceeding to Juba tomorrow with @Gen_VKSingh leading evac’s from South Sudan”.
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Kiir and Machar directed all commanders to cease hostilities, control their forces and protect civilians, information minister Michael Makuei said in a televised speech on the state broadcaster SSTV.
Among the demand also includes the immediate ceasefire which the President has already done and reciprocated by Dr. Riek Machar Teny, leader of the SPLM/A-IO.
There are around 600 Indian nationals in South Sudan and 450 of them are in Juba.
“The German air force has also deployed to assist in an global evacuation prompted by a recent wave of violence”, reports Stars and Stripes. “The first flight makes a technical halt at Entebbe, Uganda”, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh tweeted.
Under heavy worldwide pressure, Kiir and Machar signed a peace agreement in Addis Ababa last August.
Yesterday, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous told the Security Council that the fighting between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing First Vice-President Riek Machar made the movement of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) hard although the Mission was able to conduct limited patrolling. These things they just happen again and again, and the people of South Sudan are suffering.
But the United Nations has said more than 40,000 fled their homes in the latest fighting to seek shelter at United Nations and other sites in Juba.
African Union and United Nations officials have called on South Sudan’s leaders to ensure the world’s youngest country does not slide back into civil war.
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The third party force, he said, was preferable the current peace keepers of the United Nations in South Sudan (UNMISS), but added that other countries could contribute forces as long as they would be under the UNMISS mandate and command. The deal called for a transitional government that included members of both sides. South Sudan’s civil war has been characterised by ethnic massacres between the two groups – including in Juba – as well as rape, sexual slavery, murder and the use of child soldiers.
