Following speculations that Uganda is likely to deploy its forces in South Sudan to contain the situation, Uganda’s Defense and Military spokesman Col. Paddy Ankunda says they has no intentions of doing so.
The latest bout of fighting first broke out on Thursday and Friday last week, between troops loyal to Kiir and soldiers who support Machar.
At least 272 people have died in fighting between South Sudan’s rival factions in the capital Juba, including 33 civilians, a government source said on Sunday, as heavy gunfire erupted again in the city and many residents sought shelter at a UN base.
Church services were interrupted by this fighting however, the violence has since subsided, Information Minister Micheal Makuei Lueth told South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation.
The renewed violence has sparked fears that South Sudan could be sliding back into conflict after recently emerging from a two-year civil war – which began in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir fired vice president Riek Machar.
“Let me be clear: UPDF has not deployed in South Sudan. We do not have even a single soldier in Juba,” Col Ankunda tweeted earlier in the day.
South Sudan’s elusive peace:
- Nearly one in five South Sudanese displaced by the current conflict, from a total population of 12 million
- Former rebel leader Salva Kiir became president of South Sudan, the world’s newest state, when it gained independence in 2011
- Two years later, in December 2013, a conflict erupted after President Salva Kiir accused Riek Machar, his sacked deputy, of plotting a coup.
- Mr Machar denied the allegation, but then formed a rebel army.
- Much of the fighting has been carried out along ethnic lines, between Mr Machar’s Nuer group and Mr Kiir’s Dinka, the two dominant ethnic groups in South Sudan.
- South Sudan has been at war for 42 of past 60 years
aaron@ugchristiannews.com
