Intense fighting in Sudan

Heavy fighting resumed in South Sudan’s capital Juba despite international calls for calm after deadly gun battles sent thousands of people fleeing and threatened the young nation’s shaky peace.

The battles are the first between the army and ex-rebels in Juba since rebel leader Riek Machar returned in April to take up the post of vice president under wartime adversary President Salva Kiir, following the three-year conflict that has killed thousands and sparked a humanitarian crisis.

The UN expressed deep alarm over the surge in violence, which has left several hundred people dead and risks plunging the country into a new civil war. Intense battles resumed Monday with tanks and helicopter gunships deployed and artillery and mortar fire heard in parts of the city.

Insecurity meant planes were unable to arrive or depart the city’s airport. Witnesses reported “very, very heavy fighting,” with residents barricading themselves inside houses and aid workers holed up in bunkers while the US embassy warned of “serious fighting between government and opposition forces”.

The only civilians on the streets scurried for shelter during lulls in fighting. The US State Department said it was ordering all non-essential personnel out of the country, and condemned reports that civilian sites had been attacked in the latest bout of violence, which left at least 150 soldiers dead on both sides. One UN Chinese peacekeeper was killed and six were others injured when the armoured vehicle in which they were travelling was shelled.

The UN Security Council demanded Sunday that President Salva Kiir and his Vice President Riek Machar “do their utmost to control their respective forces, urgently end the fighting and prevent the spread of violence”.