{"id":6373,"date":"2013-12-24T06:11:59","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T11:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=6373"},"modified":"2013-12-26T09:28:17","modified_gmt":"2013-12-26T14:28:17","slug":"an-atmosphere-of-fear-and-desperation-in-south-sudan-as-violence-escalates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/6373","title":{"rendered":"An Atmosphere of Fear and Desperation in South Sudan as Violence Escalates."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In another news, a UN official in South Sudan has spoken of an atmosphere of fear and desperation as violence escalates.<\/p>\n

Humanitarian Co-ordinator Toby Lanzer told the BBC about summary executions in Bor, in the restive state of Jonglei that has fallen to rebels.<\/p>\n

The UN mission in South Sudan has urged rival political leaders to open negotiations.<\/p>\n

Clashes broke out between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and others backing his former deputy a week ago.<\/p>\n

Mr Lanzer says people are clamouring to get into the UN compound in Bor as the violence escalates.<\/p>\n

“When I ended up moving to the airport [Sunday] evening, we saw some of the most horrible things that one can imagine.<\/p>\n

“People who were being lined up and executed in a summary fashion. This is done by people who are simply out of control,” Mr Lanzer told Newshour.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the US said it had evacuated its citizens from Bor.<\/p>\n

Four US service personnel were wounded on Saturday when their aircraft were shot at, delaying an evacuation operation.<\/p>\n

US President Barack Obama said he may “take consider further action to support the security of US citizens, personnel and property, including our embassy, in South Sudan”.<\/p>\n

Earlier the South Sudanese army confirmed that Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity State, had also fallen to troops supporting former Vice-President Riek Machar.<\/p>\n

President Salva Kiir has accused Mr Machar of attempting a coup.<\/p>\n

Mr Lanzer, who spent several days in Bor, said the problem of people seeking refuge was growing daily.<\/p>\n

“I’m quite concerned that in a few days’ time we won’t be talking about tens of thousands, we’ll be talking about hundreds of thousands directly affected,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really very moving to see people just asking: ‘Can you please keep me alive?'”<\/p>\n

Mr Lanzer added that there was a danger not just from fighting by conventional armies but from groups of youths who he said were simply “out of control”.<\/p>\n

The government says it is trying to retake Bor, and the state has seen fierce fighting in recent days.<\/p>\n

Two Indian peacekeepers and at least 11 civilians were killed in an attack on a UN compound in Akobo, Jonglei, on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Joseph Contreras, acting UN spokesperson in Juba, told the BBC he had two messages for South Sudan’s political leaders.<\/p>\n

“One is to call upon all the political leaders to desist from further violence, to heed the African Union call to observe a holiday season truce, open a channel of dialogue and sit down to negotiate their differences peacefully.<\/p>\n

“Our other message is that we at the United Nations are here to stay.”<\/p>\n

UN relocation<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday, December 21, Mr Machar said his forces controlled Unity State – whose oilfields are crucial to South Sudan’s economy.<\/p>\n

Those reports could not be independently confirmed.<\/p>\n

However, on Sunday the 22nd of December, Col Aguer told reporters: “Bentiu is in the hands of a commander who has declared support for Machar.”<\/p>\n

He added that the number of people or wounded in the fighting was unclear.<\/p>\n

Unity, a state on the border with Sudan, produces much of South Sudan’s oil, which accounts for more than 95% of the country’s economy.<\/p>\n

Also on Sunday, the UN Mission in South Sudan said it had begun relocating staff from the capital Juba to the Ugandan city of Entebbe.<\/p>\n

Juba has been tense since the unrest began last weekend.<\/p>\n

Resident Mogga Lado told the BBC: “I was buying some things for my children in the market on Tuesday when I saw two people dressed in normal civilian clothes shot dead in front of me by people in military clothing.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if they were the army or rebels. I didn’t wait to see.”<\/p>\n

Mr Machar told the BBC on Saturday that he was prepared to negotiate with the government if politicians arrested this week were released and transferred to a neutral country such as Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

Mr Kiir also agreed to negotiations after meeting African mediators on Friday.<\/p>\n

President Kiir, a member of the majority Dinka ethnic group, sacked Mr Machar, who is from the Nuer community, in July.<\/p>\n

The violence which broke out in Juba last weekend has since spread, pitting gangs of Nuer and Dinka against each other.<\/p>\n

Photo: SPLA soldiers drive in Bentiu, 2012. [Adriane Ohanesian AFP\/Getty Images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In another news, a UN official in South Sudan has spoken of an atmosphere of fear and desperation as violence escalates. Humanitarian Co-ordinator Toby Lanzer told the BBC about summary executions in Bor, in the restive state of Jonglei that…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6373"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}