On Friday, the rifles attacked the United Nations helicopter at the Evacuation mission in the unstable part of South Sudan, killing one crew member and injuring two more, the United Nations said.
The crew of the helicopter was trying to save the wounded soldiers of southern Sudan in the state of Gornja Nil, an attempt to alleviate tension in the area, the United Nations said. He added that the wounded soldiers were also killed. It was not said if the helicopter was on the ground or in the air when he came under attack, but one armed group called the white army said that the shooting had fallen as the men were preparing for boarding.
The attack followed in the days of pointed political tensions in the East African nation, the youngest world country, in the midst of growing fear among residents and Western officials to overtur toward a new civil conflict.
IN speech By appealing to Mirna, President Salva Kiir of South Sudan promised that he would not allow this to happen. “Let no one take the law into their hands,” he said on Friday. “The government I lead will solve this crisis.”
But critics said that Mr. Kiir and rival leaders were mainly responsible for the crisis.
AND Government agreement Between Mr. Kiir and his first vice president, Riek Machar, ended the brutal civil war in 2018; In recent weeks, the collapse ran into the edge of the collapse because forces loyal to both men clashed in the state of Gornje Nil.
The Minister of Information in South Sudan said that 27 soldiers were killed on Friday, but did not provide any other detail, and the figure could not be confirmed on its own.
The White Army, which was federal with Mr. Machar, issued a statement stating that the dead included a Major General of the South Sudan Army, three of his bodyguards and a co -cilot helicopter. General guards “opened fire on a white army safety officers who were assigned to make their safe evacuation easier,” the statement said, and the white army returned the fire. Even that account could not be confirmed.
In Juba, the capital of the country, Mr. Kiir sought to combine his authority by the arrest of Mr. Machara’s ally, including Naphta Minister, Puot Kang Chol and Deputy Chief of the Army, General Gabriel Duop Lam.
The white army overcome the army of the base at Mr. Machara’s stronghold in the state of Gornje Nil.
“South Sudan quickly slides towards the full war,” said Alan Boswell, an expert on southern Sudan from the International Crisis Group. He warned that any renewed conflict was likely to be connected to the war in neighboring Sudan, on a devastating effect.
“The region could enter a major proxy war,” he said in a statement, calling regional powers like Kenya and Ethiopia “to act with supreme urgency” to alleviate the crisis. Otherwise, he warned, the “great ethnic massacres” were a immediate threat.
Pope Francis called Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machara to solve his differences during a visit to southern Sudan Two years ago. But the latest cycle of arrests and violence has made the fear of falling out of repair.
The Minister of Peace Construction in South Sudan, Stephen a couple of Kool, was among those arrested this week by Mr. Kiir’s loyalists, even though he was released on Friday.
South Sudan was founded in 2011 when he separated from Sudan after a brutal decade of independence struggle. But within a few years, bitter rivalry between Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machara led to a bloody civil war that eventually caused about 400,000 deaths.
Peace, always earthquake, has been seriously tested in the last two years because the Civil War in Sudan, in the north, wounded the weak economy of southern Sudan by reducing oil production that produces most of the revenue in the country. The presidential elections, which have been postponed several times, should now held next year.
The United States, which played a central role in the creation of South Sudan, are the largest international donor in the country. But Trump’s administration, which reduces the US budget for foreign aid, identified southern Sudan As a place where American presence should be reduced.
Angry international efforts to calm the flammable political situation on Friday got a heavy blow as news of the helicopter attack appeared.
Nicholas Hays, head of the United Nations Mission to Sudan, condemned the attack as “extremely disgusting” and said that “he could represent a war crime against international law.”
