V.K. Singh to lead evacuation of Indians from South Sudan

Embassies and aid organisations in South Sudan were trying to evacuate staff from the capital, Juba, today as a precarious calm settled over the city following several days of deadly clashes.

President Barack Obama says he’s deployed 47 USA troops to South Sudan amid a worrisome outbreak of fighting there.

The U.S. Embassy said it was arranging flights out of the country for Americans on Thursday.

In another apparent parallel with 2013, Uganda said it was sending troops to South Sudan but this time they would only help evacuate Ugandans, Uganda government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said.

Germany’s foreign ministry said its air force was evacuating other European nationals, as well as its own citizens.

Those being withdrawn included 100 German citizens, mostly aid workers and diplomats, said the foreign office.

A fragile ceasefire nevertheless appeared to be holding in the capital Juba for the second day after a sudden flare-up in fighting last week that threatened to drive the world’s newest country back into all-out civil war.

The U.N. has said 42,000 South Sudanese civilians have fled their homes due to the fighting.

Some tried to reach neighboring Uganda by road, but an Associated Press reporter spoke to people who had been wounded in attacks by armed men. Many cars had been shot at or burned.

Hundreds of soldiers have been killed on both sides for the cause none of the two leaders could explain including two Chinese peacekeepers while thousands of civilians fled the capital.

More people emerged on to the streets but many remain cautious after four days of heavy fighting that began in earnest on Friday evening, took a pause on Saturday – the young country’s fifth independence anniversary – and resumed Sunday and Monday.

The ceasefire announcement came as United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called on the Security Council to impose an “immediate arms embargo” and targeted sanctions on leaders and commanders blocking implementation of the peace deal. They also delivered food to more than 3,500 people hiding in two churches.

UNMISS has been able to conduct limited patrolling to assess the security situation and the safety and security of personnel and assets at United Nations compounds, but securing freedom of movement, however, remains a challenge, with security forces limiting UNMISS’s movement every step of the way, citing insecurity, he said, urging the Government to allow UNMISS and humanitarian actors freedom of movement and access to provide vital assistance to the affected civilian population. The town is Machar’s birthplace.