ahlam1399
07-13-2016, 05:06 AM
JUBA: A fragile ceasefire appeared to be holding in South Sudan’s capital Juba after four days of gun battles that have left hundreds of people dead and sent nearly 40,000 fleeing.
It was too early to tell on Tuesday whether the ceasefire called by both President Salva Kiir, and his longtime opponent Vice President Riek Machar, would last, but the lull allowed civilians to leave their homes.
There were ** helicopter gunships in the sky, ** tanks on the streets, ** artillery barrages and soldiers in their machine gun-mounted pick-up trucks appeared to have stayed in their barracks.
The calm was welcomed by Juba residents who have stayed mostly indoors for days as fighting intensified between Kiir’s government forces and former rebels loyal to Machar. "The situation is quiet near the airport," said August Mayai, a local resident. "There are people in the streets." Traders returning to once-busy markets found their shops and stalls looted.
Volunteers and officials from South Sudan’s Red Cross set about the grim task of collecting bodies of the dead.
There has been ** estimate so far of civilian or military casualties from the heavy clashes on Sunday and Monday but Adama Dieng, the United Nations’ Special Advisor on the Prevention of Ge**cide, said some civilians, "were reportedly targeted based on their ethnicity."
Kiir is from the Dinka tribe and Machar a Nuer. South Sudan’s civil war has been characterised by ethnic massacres between the two groups -- including in Juba -- as well as rape, ***ual slavery, murder and the use of child soldiers.
The recent fighting began in earnest on Friday evening -- killing over 300 soldiers that day alone according to government estimates -- then paused on Saturday, the country’s fifth anniversary of independence, before resuming with intense fighting on Sunday.
The violence has raised fears of a return to civil war that broke out in December 2013.
An August 2015 peace deal was supposed to end the conflict but has so far failed to do so, despite the return of rebel leader Machar in April to join a government of national unity alongside his enemy Kiir.
On Monday evening Kiir and then Machar both ordered ceasefires after a chorus of condemnation from the United Nations, regional bloc IGAD, the United States and others.
"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the return to violence in South Sudan. It must stop," National Security Advisor Susan Rice said in a statement hours after the ceasefire took effect.
Despite the pause in fighting Juba remains on tenterhooks.
"We are on the lookout because anything can happen," said one resident who did **t want to be named. "We’ve had the same situation before: we thought it was going to be fine, and it wasn’t."
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It was too early to tell on Tuesday whether the ceasefire called by both President Salva Kiir, and his longtime opponent Vice President Riek Machar, would last, but the lull allowed civilians to leave their homes.
There were ** helicopter gunships in the sky, ** tanks on the streets, ** artillery barrages and soldiers in their machine gun-mounted pick-up trucks appeared to have stayed in their barracks.
The calm was welcomed by Juba residents who have stayed mostly indoors for days as fighting intensified between Kiir’s government forces and former rebels loyal to Machar. "The situation is quiet near the airport," said August Mayai, a local resident. "There are people in the streets." Traders returning to once-busy markets found their shops and stalls looted.
Volunteers and officials from South Sudan’s Red Cross set about the grim task of collecting bodies of the dead.
There has been ** estimate so far of civilian or military casualties from the heavy clashes on Sunday and Monday but Adama Dieng, the United Nations’ Special Advisor on the Prevention of Ge**cide, said some civilians, "were reportedly targeted based on their ethnicity."
Kiir is from the Dinka tribe and Machar a Nuer. South Sudan’s civil war has been characterised by ethnic massacres between the two groups -- including in Juba -- as well as rape, ***ual slavery, murder and the use of child soldiers.
The recent fighting began in earnest on Friday evening -- killing over 300 soldiers that day alone according to government estimates -- then paused on Saturday, the country’s fifth anniversary of independence, before resuming with intense fighting on Sunday.
The violence has raised fears of a return to civil war that broke out in December 2013.
An August 2015 peace deal was supposed to end the conflict but has so far failed to do so, despite the return of rebel leader Machar in April to join a government of national unity alongside his enemy Kiir.
On Monday evening Kiir and then Machar both ordered ceasefires after a chorus of condemnation from the United Nations, regional bloc IGAD, the United States and others.
"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the return to violence in South Sudan. It must stop," National Security Advisor Susan Rice said in a statement hours after the ceasefire took effect.
Despite the pause in fighting Juba remains on tenterhooks.
"We are on the lookout because anything can happen," said one resident who did **t want to be named. "We’ve had the same situation before: we thought it was going to be fine, and it wasn’t."
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