JUBA, Dec 18: Hundreds of people have died and up to 20,000 others have fled to UN bases in days of fierce fighting in South Sudan’s army after an alleged coup bid, officials said.
The United States ordered non-essential embassy staff out of the country, the world’s youngest nation and awash with guns after decades of war, amid fears of a descent into wider ethnic violence.
In the capital Juba, gunfire still rang out into the early hours today morning, a reporter said.
“There are people walking in the city this morning, but it would be premature to say things are back to normal,” he said.
The Government ordered Juba airport to re-open, although regional airlines said they were waiting for security guaranties before allowing flights bound for Juba to take off.
“We are waiting for confirmation that the airport is safe,” a Kenya Airways official said. “For the moment it is 50-50”.
Many of Juba’s residents have spent the past two days barricaded in their homes, too afraid to move. Others used lulls in the sporadic and often intense battles to grab what belongings they could and flee to safer areas, including UN bases.
President Salva Kiir on Monday accused soldiers loyal to his arch-rival, former vice president Riek Machar who was sacked in July, of staging a coup attempt in the oil-rich but deeply impoverished nation, which has struggled with instability since becoming independent in 2011.
Machar, in comments published today, denied any attempt to topple the president, and instead accused Kiir of using the violence to as a pretext to purge any challengers.
“What took place in Juba was a misunderstanding between presidential guards within their division, it was not a coup attempt,” he told the Paris-based Sudan Tribune website, in his first public remarks since the fighting started.
“Kiir wanted to use the alleged coup attempt in order to get rid of us.”
The Government said 10 key figures, many of them former ministers, have been arrested in the crackdown, and that others, including Machar, were on the run.
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the Security Council that between 400-500 bodies had been taken to hospitals in Juba, while another 800 people had been wounded.
Ladsous told the council it appeared the clashes that erupted in the “extremely tense” capital late Sunday were on ethnic lines. (AGENCIES)
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