JUBA: South Sudanese rebels said they had seized control of the capital of oil-producing Upper Nile state on Tuesday, in an assault the government branded a flagrant breach of a ceasefire signed in January.
The rebel strike was the first attack on a major town since the Jan.23 ceasefire deal, but the government denied rebels now controlled Malakal, which lies on the fringes of a key oil-producing area in the country’s northeastern corner.
Aid sources said small arms fire could be heard inside the town after a dawn artillery battle outside the government-held capital of Upper Nile state, and it was unclear who was in control.
“The fighting is very heavy... It’s a very big, co-ordinated attack,” an aid source told AFP, adding that warplanes - possibly Ugandan - were flying over the town in support of government troops.
A spokesman for the UN mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, said UN bases where thousands of civilians are sheltering had been cut off.
“Our compounds have been cut off in some of the crossfire,” said the spokesman, Joe Contreras.
South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer confirmed there was fighting in Malakal but could not say who was in control.
“Our team can hear small arms fire,” said another foreign aid source, who also asked not to be identified because of security concerns.
“There are reports the market is on fire, and it appears the rebels are inside the town, although it’s not at all clear who is in control.” The fighting appeared the heaviest to take place since the government of President Salva Kiir and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar signed a ceasefire agreement in neighbouring Ethiopia on Jan.23.
The conflict in South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation which won independence from Khartoum less than three years ago, erupted in the capital Juba on Dec.15 but quickly spread across the country.
The fighting has left thousands of people dead and displaced close to 900,000, including tens of thousands who have crammed into UNMISS bases in fear of ethnic attacks by either Kiir’s Dinka tribe or Machar’s Nuer tribe.
The aid agency Oxfam said civilians trapped in Malakal were “very afraid.”
“It’s really worrying that this is happening and that the ceasefire is not being upheld, and it really damages our work to help the poorest and most vulnerable,” said Oxfam’s spokeswoman Grace Cahill.
