Leading South Sudan opposition member says he was tortured

The United Nations says it is also investigating reports accusing President Kiir’s troops of targeting UN staff and foreign aid workers amid the fighting.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

He said Singh, soon after landing on Thursday, met with South Sudan Foreign Minister Deng Alor Kuol and the country’s Vice President James Wani Igga. “South Sudan must respect people’s right to freedom of movement, including the right to leave their own country”, said Elizabeth Deng, Amnesty International’s South Sudan Researcher.

The operation, named Operation Sankat Mochan, was the first big evacuation effort a year after Operation Rahat evacuated hundreds of citizens of India and other countries from Yemen in 2015.

Both pro-government and opposition troops in South Sudan have been advised of the USA deployment, which is “defensive in nature and for the sole goal to protect US personnel and facilities”, pointed out Dyrcz. So, the president is saying that he does not want the regional organization IGAD, which had a meeting in Kenya, to send additional troops.

An official with South Sudan’s National Editor’s Forum, or NEF, a journalist network, said a photo he saw of Gatluak’s body showed he was shot in the face and lying on his back, his arms outstretched.

Both Kiir and Machar, now first vice president, called late Monday for a cease-fire, which has appeared to hold.

UNMISS “reports that the situation in Juba is calm but tense with heavy” military presence, Dujarric said. “We are going to try and distribute what we can”, he said, “World Vision is concerned that thousands of civilians are being displaced everyday”, Young said.

Kyanda said the mission would likely last “two to three days” but an intelligence officer told AFP some Ugandan troops may remain in Juba. The forces had withdrawn from the capital after the signing of the peace agreement and are expected to stay to focus more on the evacuations. The NEF official said government soldiers stormed the Terrain Hotel as they were returning to the center of town.

Before the fighting started at the end of last week, more than 4,500 metric tons of food was in the warehouse, enough to provide life-saving food and nutrition assistance to about 220,000 people for a month, it said.

Juba worldwide airport is packed with security personnel who block men from taking flights to other countries, resulting to detention of numerous passengers who were seen thrown into security vehicles and driven back into town.

Commercial flights resumed to Juba on Thursday morning, with planes arriving nearly empty and leaving full of people desperate to get out of the city.