Up to 40,000 civilians have taken refuge in U.N. bases in South Sudan despite U.N. peacekeeping forces coming under attack by rebel forces in the country.
The U.N. said 20 people died during an attack Thursday by about 2,000 armed youths on a U.N. peacekeeping base in Jonglei state, CNN reports. Two Indian peacekeepers were also killed.
Some estimates put the total number of dead at 500, with 800 more wounded in a week of fighting in South Sudan.
South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported Wednesday that about 500 people had died in the fighting, according to an earlier CNN report.
ABC reports that South Sudan’s central government lost control of the capital of a key oil-producing state Sunday as renegade forces loyal to a former deputy president seized more territory in fighting that has raised fears of full-blown civil war.
Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity state, is now controlled by a military commander loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, said Col. Philip Aguer, the South Sudanese military spokesman.
The country’s capital, Juba, is mostly peaceful a week after a dispute among members of the presidential guard triggered violent clashes between military factions, according to ABC. Fighting continues.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday the organization was boosting its mission on the ground, CNN reports.
“There are many more thousands of people who are very much in fear and vulnerable, and at this time, the priority of the United Nations is to (protect) the lives of civilians,” Ban told a news conference in the Philippines.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates 62,000 people have been displaced, with five of South Sudan’s 10 states affected by the violence.
U.N. helicopters evacuated aid workers and other civilians from the South Sudanese town of Bor, a senior U.S. official said Sunday, after a U.S. mission to airlift Americans out was aborted when the aircraft came under fire, CNN reports.
Four U.S. troops were wounded in Saturday’s attack in Bor, site of spiraling violence in the world’s newest country. The Pentagon and State Department are working on a plan to get any remaining Americans out of the area, according to CNN.
There is a “strong possibility” the U.S. military will send aircraft back into Bor for that evacuation mission, the official said.
”If U.N. helicopters are flying, then there’s no reason the U.S. military can’t go back in,” the official said, with the two most realistic options being either U.S. military or U.N. aircraft.
It was not immediately clear if any U.S. citizens were on board the U.N. flights Sunday. The official said the U.S. Africa Command is looking at the threat from rebel forces and small arms fire and will tailor any mission to deal with that. The U.S. has aircraft in Djibouti, Uganda and Kenya potentially available to conduct the evacuation, CNN reports.
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