Gunmen hurt civilians at UN base in South Sudan

PHOTO | FILE South Sudanese rebel leader and former vice president Riek Machar addresses a meeting of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the Upper Nile state in South Sudan on April 15, 2014.

What you need to know:

  • Scores wounded in attack
  • The conflict in South Sudan has left thousands dead and forced around a million people to flee their homes since fighting broke out on December 15 in the capital Juba before spreading to other states in the oil-rich nation.

JUBA, Thursday

Several people were wounded in a gun battle in South Sudan Thursday after fighters tried to storm a UN peacekeeping base with terrified civilians sheltered inside, the UN said.

The top UN aid official in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said he was “outraged” by the assault in the war-ravaged town of Bor, that he said was an “attack of armed youth... on civilians seeking protection”.

Almost 5,000 civilians are sheltering inside the fortified base of the UN mission in South Sudan (UNmiss) in the town, one of the most bitterly contested regions in the four-month-long conflict.

The civilians fled into the base weeks ago amid brutal ethnic massacres in the world’s newest nation.

Mayor Nhial Majok said at least 14 people were wounded, but added that the number could be more.

“Local youth were demonstrating ... there was shooting of guns,” Majok told AFP, adding that at least 14 young men had been seen with gunshot wounds.

Majok said the demonstrators had clashed with peacekeepers inside the base.

“There were clashes between the UNmiss force and local youth here ... some of the youth were armed,” Majok said.

Information Minister Michael Makuei said that a “huge number” of gunmen, seeking revenge for the rebel capture of the oil-town of Bentiu two days ago, overwhelmed government forces in a bid to kill the trapped civilians, many of them children.

“UN forces intervened, and they managed to bring the situation under control,” Makuei said.

The conflict in South Sudan has left thousands dead and forced around a million people to flee their homes since fighting broke out on December 15 in the capital Juba before spreading to other states in the oil-rich nation.

The fighting is between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir and mutinous troops who sided with Riek Machar (above), who was sacked as vice-president in 2013.

The conflict has taken on an ethnic dimension, pitting Kiir’s Dinka tribe against militia forces from Machar’s Nuer people.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that more than one million people were at risk of famine in the troubled country.