UN chief calls for immediate arms embargo on South Sudan

That stand-off led to clashes. A United Nations panel of experts has said Kiir and Machar themselves bear command responsibility for troops who allegedly committed crimes. On Sunday, the president’s information minister, Michael Makuei, had said the situation was under control and urged people to return home.

Fighting first broke out Thursday in the world’s newest formed nation, with skirmishes between troops loyal to Kiir and soldiers backing his rival, Vice President Riek Machar. The conflict forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes and cut oil production in the country, which has sub-Saharan Africa’s third-biggest crude reserves, by at least a third to as little as 120,000 barrels per day.

Explosions and “very heavy gunfire” sounding “like popcorn”, was reported by a resident in the Gudele area, who insisted on anonymity for safety.

“We know about some civilians being shot at in and around these protected (U.N.) sites”, Eglin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Juba.

A spokesman for Mr. Kiir couldn’t be immediately reached on Monday, but Mr. Kiir’s representatives have previously said that Mr. Machar’s forces attacked first and said that they want a cease-fire. While no official death count has been announced, estimates of 150 to 270 people killed in the fighting were reported. He added that clashes are calming down and the area is in the process of being delivered to a more composed state of affairs.

Persaud, the United Nations mission spokeswoman, talked to CNN by phone from a United Nations compound, taking cover in the bathroom as gunfire was exchanged outside the complex near Jubal’s airport.

“I’ve gotten calls that I should leave, but there was so much gunfire nearby, I chose to stay in”, said one resident, who insisted on anonymity for her safety.

Hours after the declaration by Kiir, gunfire could still be heard, although it was unclear if was fighting or troops firing in celebration.

Both Kiir and Machar maintain that they do not know how and why the clashes started.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Security Council to place an immediate arms embargo on South Sudan.

Zuma called on South Sudan President Salva Kirr and First Vice President Riek Machar to provide the required leadership under these hard circumstances.

The worldwide community must also impose targeted sanctions against civilian and military officials reasonably suspected of responsibility for crimes under global law or human rights violations, the organisation said.

Kenya Airways suspended flights to Juba on Sunday, citing the “uncertain security situation”.

Machar and Kiir signed a peace deal in August 2015 to end the conflict, but spent months afterwards wrangling over details. In April, Machar returned to the capital to again take up the post of vice president, saying that “peace is the only choice for us to relieve our people the undeserved suffering associated with armed conflict enforced upon them”. “I am deeply frustrated that despite commitments by South Sudan’s leaders, fighting has resumed”, he said.

The United States and India are evacuating nonemergency staff from their missions in South Sudan as bloody violence in the capital spirals, leaving scores of people dead, including two Chinese U.N. peacekeepers.

Fighting since 2013 has left swathes of the country of 11 million people struggling to find enough food to eat.