South Sudan fighting between army factions persists

South Sudan’s president and his estranged deputy ordered a ceasefire Monday after a new day of heavy fighting in the capital that sent thousands fleeing and threatened a return to civil war.

Ban did not elaborate on the degree to which United Nations forces in South Sudan could be bolstered, saying he would discuss it with the Security Council.

Numerous thousands displaced by the renewed fighting in Juba are seeking shelter at the two U.N. bases, a World Food Program compound and other areas, said U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokeswoman Matilda Moyo.

The renewed fighting comes during South Sudan’s fifth independence and only two months after the world’s youngest nation joined the East African Community trading bloc. The new country’s emergence was cheered by the global community including the United States.

The two-year civil war killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 2 million.

An aid worker in the Tomping area of Juba, where the airport and a United Nations base are located, described a “massive explosion” early Monday.

Both sides have now announced a cease-fire, Reuters reports. Although President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar signed a peace agreement last August, violence has continued, threatening to snowball into a full-scale civil war.

But fighting continued in parts of the country even as the fragile deal moved forward. 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”.

“What we are doing is really a first step. the first drop in an ocean of needs”, ICRC’s head of delegation in South Sudan Jürg Eglin said after a team delivered supplies to two hospitals, a church and two compounds sheltering displaced people. They are meant to hold joint patrols but have yet to work together and remain stationed in separate areas.

The statement said 44 government soldiers, five policemen, and 190 fighters – allegedly Machar’s bodyguards – were killed in Friday’s clashes alone.

On Friday, Kiir and Machar had been in patch-up talks after Thursday’s shootings when gunfire erupted.

Machar, who is the country’s first vice-president under a fragile peace deal, made the call in an interview with South Sudan-based Eye Radio.

Some worldwide organizations and businesses have started evacuating workers from South Sudan, a further blow to its severely weakened economy.

More than 200 people are reported to be dead after clashes in Juba, South Sudan, started a few days ago between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and Vice President Rieck Machar, according to BBC.

A Chinese UN peacekeeper was killed and several Chinese and Rwandan peacekeepers were injured, Japan’s UN ambassador Koro Bessho said on Sunday, July 10, after the UN Security Council was briefed on the situation.