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JUBA-Government forces pressed yesterday with an offensive to wrest back control of South Sudan’s main oil hub from rebel forces as Washington voiced fears the nation it helped establish was already collapsing.
The worst fighting centred around Bentiu, where forces loyal to former vice-president Riek Machar have been holding off the army of President Salva Kiir, leaving the oil town ransacked and emptied of its civilian population.
The United Nations, which shelters more than 8,000 people at its Bentiu compound, said its mission in South Sudan had cut off military links with the government and was ready to fend off any attack.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the outcome of the battle for Bentiu, capital of Unity state, was “unclear and fluid”.
He said there are now more than 60,000 people at UN compounds across South Sudan, half of them in Juba and another 9,000 in Bor, the rebel-held capital of Jonglei state.
And the number of South Sudanese taking refuge in Uganda has more than tripled to 32,000 in the past two days, the UN said, adding that more than 10,000 are also registered in Kenya and Ethiopia.
In total, there are now probably more than a quarter million people displaced by the fighting, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said, after briefing the UN Security Council on the crisis.
No current figures on a death toll were available, Ladsous added, but he estimated it was “very substantially in excess” of the 1,000 deaths the UN reported just after conflict erupted on December 15.
An army spokesperson said on Thursday troops loyal to Kiir had closed in on Bentiu. — AFP.
Online Reporter