Category: Sudan

#SouthSudan: Words Aren’t Enough

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There has been relatively little conservative commentary on the crisis in South Sudan. Part of this could be explained by low expectations: Anarchy in Africa is not exactly unusual, and why should this particular episode of mayhem deserve our attention? Part of it may be due to the sense that no important American interest is affected by events in South Sudan. But it may be that conservatives are just overlooking an excellent opportunity to hoist President Obama by his own petard, to cite this crisis as further evidence of the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s ineptitude.

Rick Moran at American Thinker expresses a pessimistic view:

Things are getting out of control in South Sudan. There are now reports of massacres, mass graves, rape, and it’s getting worse. A refugee crisis is brewing as tens of thousands flee the ethnic cleansing underway.
South Sudan could easily become another Somalia — a failed state run by gangs and warlords who target the innocent. Will the world stand by and let it happen again?
Of course we will.

Quite likely true, but why should we pass up this chance to point out the vast distance between President Obama’s “Hope and Change” rhetoric and the dismal result of his policies? Because the dismal result is staring the world right in the face:

U.S. Marines stood by to help evacuate Americans in South Sudan as the top U.N. official there warned Tuesday of a “breakdown in respect for the most basic rights of people” amid the country’s widening military and humanitarian crisis.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Toby Lanzer tweeted that more accounts were reaching him of human rights abuses amid widening violence that has stoked fears of an all-out civil war in the world’s newest country.
In Geneva, Switzerland, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called human rights abuses in the country a “serious and growing” problem.
“Mass extrajudicial killings, the targeting of individuals on the basis of their ethnicity and arbitrary detentions have been documented in recent days,” Pillay said, according to the statement. “We have discovered a mass grave in Bentiu, in Unity State, and there are reportedly at least two other mass graves in Juba.”
One U.N. official saw 14 bodies at the mass grave in Bentiu and another 20 on a nearby riverbank, said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the commissioner.
“As for the other two reported graves in Juba, we are still working to verify but it is very difficult, and there are reports that some bodies may have already been burned,” she said.

The New York Times reports:

On Monday, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, urged a major increase in peacekeeping troops in the country, where the organization’s bases in Juba and other cities have become de facto sanctuaries for tens of thousands of civilians trying to escape the violence. Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, and Bentiu, the capital of Unity state, an oil producing area, are considered especially tense and dangerous.
Hundreds of people, and possibly many more, have been killed in more than a week of clashes and confusion around the country. . . .
On Monday, the Pentagon said it was stepping up its planning to evacuate Americans and protect those who remain in South Sudan. About 150 Marines and six transport aircraft are being sent from Spain to Djibouti, where an emergency force was created in the wake of the deadly attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.
The move was hinted at in a letter President Obama sent to congressional leaders on Sunday in which he said that he might take “further action” to support American citizens and interests in the strife-ridden region.
The United States also put forward a Security Council resolution on Monday to approve Mr. Ban’s plea for more international peacekeepers. . . .
“The leaders of South Sudan face a stark choice,” said Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the United Nations. “They can return to the political dialogue and spirit of cooperation that helped establish South Sudan, or they can destroy those hard-fought gains and tear apart their newborn nation.”
Diplomats from Africa, the United States and elsewhere have tried to bring the warring parties to the table, hoping to cobble together a cease-fire before the cycle of violence gathers momentum and leads to a protracted civil war.

So far, U.S. policy in South Sudan is to issue strongly worded warnings that the combatants ignore. Good luck with that.

 

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The Sudden #SouthSudan Crisis

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What is stunning about the situation in South Sudan is how rapidly it has spun completely out of control:

Eight days after a mutiny in South Sudan’s capital signaled the start of “unrest” (as reporters euphemistically phrase it), it was reported Monday that additional U.S. troops would be sent to Africa in preparation for possible further action. Four U.S. troops were wounded Saturday when rebels fired on an evacuation flight to the key South Sudanese town of Bor, about 125 miles north of the capital, Juba.
“Defense officials say the U.S. is moving additional Marines and aircraft from Spain to the Horn of Africa to provide embassy security and help with evacuations from violence-wracked South Sudan,” the Associated Press reported. “A defense official says the extra forces moving to Djibouti will bring the total U.S. troops there to 150, with 10 aircraft, including Osprey helicopters and C-130 transport planes.”
Djibouti is on the east coast of Africa next to Ethiopia, nearly 2,000 miles by road from Juba, and it was not clear how many of the U.S. troops would actually be sent to South Sudan. A Pentagon spokesman said the commander of U.S. Africa Command is “repositioning his forces in the region to ensure that we’ve got capabilities necessary to respond to any request from the State Department.” . . .

Read the whole thing at The American Spectator.

 

#SouthSudan: It’s Civil War Now

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There has been a lot of verbal tiptoeing among journalists writing about the crisis in South Sudan, said to be “on the verge” of civil war, etc. But the country’s former vice president, Riek Machar, has now admitted that he is leading the rebels, some army officers have defected to Machar’s side, bloody tribal violence has erupted, foreign nationals are evacuating, U.S. troops were wounded by rebel fire, a key oil region is reported under rebel control, total casualties are estimated to exceed 1,000 — it’s past the “verge.” This is a civil war:

Rebels have seized the capital of a key oil-producing state in South Sudan, government officials said, as fears grew that the latest violence would spiral into an all-out civil war in the world’s newest country.
The United Nations said it was trying to send more peacekeeping forces to the East African state, as foreign powers urged an immediate end to the fighting.
The violence, which began in the capital, Juba, has spread farther north in one week, killing hundreds of people and displacing tens of thousands.
Military spokesman Phillip Aguer told CNN that Bentiu is currently not under government control, after falling to troops loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, who was ousted from his post in the summer.
On its Twitter feed, the South Sudanese government wrote: “Bentiu is not currently in our hands. It is in the hands of a commander who has declared support for Machar.”
Bentiu is the capital of Unity state, the source of oil — crucial to impoverished South Sudan’s economy — that flows through pipelines north into Sudan for export.

We’re clearly past the “teetering on the brink” phase:

Civilian helicopters evacuated US citizens from a city in South Sudan that has seen bouts of heavy machine-gun fire, but 3,000 citizens from countries including Canada, Britain and Kenya remain trapped there, a UN official has said.
Toby Lanzer, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator, said Australians, Ugandans and Ethiopians were also among 15,000 people seeking protection at a UN base in Bor, a city that could see increasing violence in coming days.
The death toll from a week of violence in South Sudan has likely surpassed 1,000, though there are no firm numbers available, he said on Monday. The number of internal refugees is likely to exceed 100,000, said Lanzer, who is seeking urgent financial assistance from the international community.
“I can’t afford any delays from donor capitals right now,” he said in a phone call. “Never has there been a greater time of need in South Sudan.”
Bor is the city where three US military aircraft were fired upon on Saturday, forcing the Ospreys – advanced helicopter-airplane hybrids – to abort their evacuation mission. On Sunday, the US evacuated its citizens by civilian American and UN helicopters.
The US over the past week has evacuated 380 Americans and 300 others from South Sudan, which has witnessed vicious, ethnically targeted violence. Military commanders loyal to the country’s ousted vice-president have defected and say they are in control of areas that hold lucrative oil fields.
Lanzer, who spent the weekend in Bor, said the city was the scene of tense, sporadic clashes and “fairly consistent gunfire and heavy machine-gun fire”.

When the army announces a “major offensive”? It’s a civil war:

South Sudan’s army was poised for a major offensive against rebel forces, the president said Monday, as the country slid towards civil war despite international peace efforts.
Expectations of a major upsurge in fighting came as the United Nations warned that the situation in the world’s youngest nation was fast unravelling, with hundreds of thousands of civilians now at risk.
Fighting has gripped South Sudan for more than a week, after President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar, who was fired from the government in July, of attempting a coup.
Machar denied the claim and accused Kiir of carrying out a vicious purge of his rivals. Vowing to oust Kiir, his forces have since seized the town of Bor, capital of the powder-keg eastern Jonglei state and located just 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Juba, as well as the town of Bentiu, capital of crucial oil-producing Unity state.
The army is “now ready to move to Bor,” Kiir told parliament, adding that the counter-attack was delayed until US citizens had been airlifted out.
The comments came despite days of shuttle diplomacy by African nations and calls from the United States, Britain and the United Nations for the fighting to stop in the country, which won independence from Sudan just two and a half years ago, in July 2011.
US special envoy Donald Booth arrived Monday in Juba in a bid to push peace efforts, as the top UN humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said the situation was rapidly deteriorating.
“It would have been difficult one week ago to imagine that things would have unravelled to this extent,” Lanzer told AFP. “There are hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese who’ve fled into the bush or back to their villages to get out of harm’s way.”

So the “peace efforts” have so far failed, Machar’s rebellion is an ongoing enterprise, and everybody can stop pretending that this is merely a “crisis” and call it what it is: A civil war.

 


Obama to #SouthSudan: Good Luck

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If you expected any determined U.S. action to end this civil war, my condolences on your Nobel Peace Prize disappointment:

“This conflict can only be resolved peacefully through negotiations. Any effort to seize power through the use of military force will result in the end of longstanding support from the United States and the international community.”

This is just noise, which any rebel leader or armed tribal mob will scornfully ignore, if they even bother to notice because, contrary to the president’s assertion, conflicts often are revolved violently through the use of military force, and without regard to a lot of diplomatic chatter from “the international community.” The man with a gun in his hand generally only stops fighting when confronted with superior force, and there is nothing in Obama’s statement that indicates any effort by the U.S. in that direction.

So we’re sitting this one out, I guess. Turning our attention away from irrelevant noise, let’s talk about what matters, i.e., the war:

Former South Sudan Vice-President Riek Machar has said rebel troops have captured the key oil-producing state of Unity and control much of the country.
Mr Machar also confirmed to the BBC that the forces fighting the government were under his command.
The country has been in turmoil since President Salva Kiir accused Mr Machar a week ago of attempting a coup. . . .

(Which, of course, he was.)

Mr Machar, whose claim to control Unity could not be independently verified, told the BBC that a senior military commander, Gen James Koang, had gone over to the rebels earlier in the week.
However, government forces say Gen Koang defected alone and did not take any troops with him.
Unity, a state on the border with Sudan, produces much of South Sudan’s oil, which accounts for more than 95% of the country’s economy.
Mr Machar added that he was prepared to negotiate with the government if politicians arrested this week were released and transferred to a neutral country such as Ethiopia.
Mr Kiir also agreed to negotiations after meeting African mediators on Friday.
But government troops are currently trying to retake Bor, in one of the most volatile regions in the country.
Troops backed by helicopter gunships were advancing on the town, army spokesman Philip Aguer told AFP news agency.

More talk, talk, talk:

The African Union called on Saturday for an immediate ceasefire in South Sudan, where U.N. staff say hundreds of people have been killed in nearly a week of fighting.
In a statement, it described the killing of U.N. peacekeepers and civilians at a U.N. camp as a war crime.
Fighting that began on Sunday in the capital Juba has swiftly spread to other parts of the country, fuelled by ethnic divisions between the main Nuer and Dinka tribal groups.
The African Union said in a statement that its chairwoman, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma “calls for an immediate humanitarian truce for the Christmas season, as a sign of a commitment by all concerned to the well-being of the people of South Sudan”.

The New York Times provides background:

Like many conflicts in this tenuous nation, the fighting has taken on an ethnic dimension, human rights workers say. Mr. Machar, the former vice president removed over the summer when Mr. Kiir summarily dismissed his entire cabinet, is a Nuer. The president belongs to the majority Dinka ethnic group.
In the capital, South Sudanese forces have targeted members of the Nuer ethnic group, killing many and detaining others, including soldiers, lawmakers and students, rights workers and refuge seekers say.
But outside the capital, in Jonglei State, the reverse has occurred as well, with Nuer militiamen targeting Dinka, descending on United Nations compounds where thousands of civilians have fled for safety and carrying out attacks on oil facilities that have resulted in what the Security Council called “the heavy loss of life” among workers.
“We are deeply concerned that ethnically based attacks on all sides will lead to revenge attacks and more violence,” Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Other observers have said that politics, not ethnicity, are driving the conflict.
“It is a power struggle,” said Zacharia Diing Akol, an analyst at the Sudd Institute in Juba. “Ethnicity is an afterthought.”

UPDATE: A young Heritage staffer works weekend:

 

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#SouthSudan 3 U.S. Troops Wounded as Rebels Fire on Transport Plane UPDATE: Four U.S. Casualties; Rebels Claim Overthrow of Oil Region Capital

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Damn. Just . . . damn.

KAMPALA, Uganda — Rebel fire hit two U.S. military aircraft responding to the outbreak in violence in South Sudan on Saturday, wounding three U.S. service members and heavily damaging at least one of the aircraft, officials said. …
The U.S. military aircraft were heading to Bor, the capital of the state of Jonglei and scene of some of the nation’s worst violence over the last week. One American service member was reported to be in critical condition. Officials said after the aircraft took incoming fire, they turned around and headed to Kampala, Uganda. From there the service members were flown on to Nairobi, Kenya for medical treatment, the officials said. . . .
It was not immediately known what the U.S. aircraft were doing in Bor. One official said it appeared the aircraft were Ospreys, the type of aircraft that can fly like a helicopter and a plane.
Officials at the U.S. military’s Africa Command did not immediately answer phone calls or emails on Saturday.
South Sudan’s military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, said that government troops are not in control of Bor, so the attack on the U.S. aircraft has to be blamed on renegade soldiers, he said.

Some of my Army son’s buddies from Fort Bragg may be in the middle of this nightmare, and it just horrifies me to think of the parents of these wounded soldiers being notified that their sons got shot because some idiot “rebel” in South Sudan decided to shoot at Americans who are only there to try to save lives.

Well, when it was announced Thursday that President Obama was sending 45 troops to South Sudan, my first comment was that I would have been more comfortable if he had sent 450. But maybe even 4,500 wouldn’t be enough, and maybe there’s no hope at all.

UPDATE: Reports from the U.S. Embassy in South Sudan:

Long story short, if there are U.S. personnel in Bor, they’re stuck there until the situation gets under control and, frankly, it looks like the situation is rapidly heading in the other direction.

UPDATE II: Sorting through the online reports:

The Associated Press reports:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Gunfire hit a U.S. military aircraft trying to evacuate American citizens in a remote region of South Sudan that on Saturday became a battle ground between the country’s military and renegade troops, officials said. Four U.S. service members were wounded in the attack in the same region that gunfire downed a U.N. helicopter the day before.
The U.S. military aircraft was about to land in Bor, the capital of the state of Jonglei and scene of some of the nation’s worst violence over the last week, when it was hit. One American service member was reported to be in critical condition.
The U.S. military’s Africa Command said the aircraft was “participating in a mission to evacuate American citizens in Bor.” A South Sudan official said violence against civilians there has resulted in bodies “sprinkled all over town.” . . .
Two officials told The Associated Press that after the aircraft took incoming fire, they turned around and flew to Kampala, Uganda. From there the service members were flown to Nairobi, Kenya for medical treatment.

If these were V-22 Osprey, then the wounded troops are most likely Marines. Meanwhile, there is this troubling report:

The commander fourth division of South Sudan’s army in oil-producing Unity state has declared that he has deposed the governor and that his forces are no longer loyal to President Salva Kiir.
Speaking over state and private radio stations on Saturday morning Commander James Koang Chuol said he had overthrown Unity state’s acting governor, Joseph Nguen Monytuel, after he was involved in plot to assassinate him.
Koang said that the fourth division’s tank unit tried to kill him at around 7pm on Friday evening, after they were ordered to do so by governor Monytuel at the behest of senior members of the military in Juba.
Addressing the people of Unity state, Koang orderd, the state’s ministers to remain in their homes but called on civil servants to continue working as normal.
The fourth division commander said South Sudan’s president, vice president and the former caretaker governor of Unity state had fueled the fighting that has spread through the country since it began in the capital, Juba on 15 December.

Because that report comes from a Khartoum-based source, I’m taking it with a grain of salt. In a breaking news situation like this, first reports are always confused, and it’s impossible for me to tell if this is just anti-Kiir propaganda.

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#SouthSudan: Please, Pray for Peace

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It has been said by numerous observers in recent days that South Sudan is the “world’s newest nation,” and most people in America have no idea how long and how hard South Sudan fought to gain its independence from the Muslim regime in Khartoum. That the people of this newborn nation would so soon risk losing all they had fought for — well, it’s shocking beyond words.

Watching the news develop — and thanks very much to Twitchy for taking notice — I’ve been absolutely heartbroken, and trying hard not to write a long essay about this mess. Reuters reports:

The United Nations estimated on Friday that at least 11 people from the ethnic Dinka group in South Sudan were killed during an attack by thousands of armed youths from a different ethnic group on a U.N. peacekeeping base in Jonglei state.
About 2,000 ethnic Lou Nuer youths overran the U.N. base in Akobo on Thursday, killing two of the 43 Indian peacekeepers and fleeing with arms and ammunition, the United Nations said.  . . .
French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud, president of the U.N. Security Council for December, said there were now fears that a similar attack could occur in Bor, where several thousand armed youths had gathered near a U.N. base sheltering 14,000 civilians. The Nuer massacred Dinka in Bor in 1991.
“There were two or three thousand people with heavy weapons who were close to the camp so there was, of course, the worry about what they were going to do since it would be exactly the same scenario as what happened in Akobo,” Araud told reporters after deputy U.N. peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet briefed the council on the situation in South Sudan.

The Associated Press reports:

Armed rebels were said to be in control of some of South Sudan’s oil fields Friday, raising questions of how long the country’s oil will flow and whether Sudan could enter the conflict.
President Salva Kiir implored his country to turn away from ethnic violence and met Friday with foreign ministers from neighbouring states, including Kenya and Ethiopia, who flew into Juba, the capital, to help calm tensions after a week of ethnic strife that is estimated to have killed hundreds.

Even if the negotiations succeed in preventing the spread of fighting, there has already been serious damage done — many tens of thousands of refugees have fled the violence — and the fragile economy of South Sudan will take months to recover. Today’s New York Times headline: “South Sudan Steps Closer to Unraveling.”

This story is developing rapidly and the next 48 to 72 hours may be crucial. You’re not likely to get much news about this crisis from the networks, so the best way to keep track of the situation is to watch the #SouthSudan hashtag on Twitter.

 


#SouthSudan Update: Obama Urges Calm, Reconciliation, Sends Small U.S. Force

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President Obama has sent 45 troops — just to protect U.S. personnel and property — to South Sudan, and issued a statement:

In 2011, millions of South Sudanese voted to forge a new nation, founded on the promise of a more peaceful and prosperous future for all of South Sudan’s people. In recent years, against great odds, South Sudan has made great progress toward breaking the cycle of violence that characterized much of its history.
Today, that future is at risk. South Sudan stands at the precipice. Recent fighting threatens to plunge South Sudan back into the dark days of its past.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. South Sudan has a choice. Its leaders can end the violence and work to resolve tensions peacefully and democratically. Fighting to settle political scores or to destabilize the government must stop immediately. Inflammatory rhetoric and targeted violence must cease. All sides must listen to the wise counsel of their neighbors, commit to dialogue and take immediate steps to urge calm and support reconciliation. South Sudan’s leaders must recognize that compromise with one’s political enemy is difficult; but recovering from unchecked violence and unleashed hatred will prove much harder.
Too much blood has been spilled and too many lives have been lost to allow South Sudan’s moment of hope and opportunity to slip from its grasp. Now is the time for South Sudan’s leaders to show courage and leadership, to reaffirm their commitment to peace, to unity, and to a better future for their people. The United States will remain a steady partner of the South Sudanese people as they seek the security and prosperity they deserve.

This is a good first step, although I’d feel better if he had sent 450 troops instead of 45, but OK. My concern is that South Sudan is flanked on the west by Central African Republican, which has recently descended into anarchy, and the Islamic Khartoum government to the North would like nothing better than instability in the South to justify intervention. The tribal aspect of the fighting in South Sudan is the real danger: “the race card is being played by both sides” —  which sounds crazy to American ears, since both the Dinka and Nuer are black as coal, but tribal animosities are the bane of political stability in modern Africa.

Thursday’s attack on a United Nations peacekeeping base in Jonglei killed three Indian troops, and there’s this:

South Sudan’s government declared that its security forces are in “absolute control of the situation,” but admitted later Thursday that the central government had lost control of Bor, the capital of the country’s largest and most populous state, where barrages of gunfire were reported.

This is not good news:

[R]ebels have taken the town of Bor.
The town, which lies about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital, Juba, was under heavy shelling, said Col. Philip Aguer, an army spokesman. Bor Mayor Mhial Majak Mhial said the town was under rebel control and heavy artillery was in use. . . .
President Salva Kiir has blamed soldiers loyal to his former vice president, Riek Machar, for starting the violence.
“The government has lost control of Jonglei state to the forces of Col. Machar and his group,” government representative Ateny Wek Ateny told CNN, referring to the state where Bor is situated.
The government could not yet confirm the number of fatalities from the violence, but “casualties are in the hundreds, including army forces and civilians,” Ateny said.

Lots more at the link. Thousands of refugees are fleeing. Even the best-case scenario — government forces swiftly defeating the pro-Machar rebels — would likely mean weeks of fighting and hundreds more casualties. And the worst-case scenario is almost unthinkable, a full-blown Rwanda-style ethnic bloodbath.

UPDATE: Andrew Green reports from Juba for Foreign Policy:

It will probably never be clear what triggered the Dec. 15 firefight that broke out at a Juba military barracks and has now brought the world’s newest country to the brink of a civil war. In the hours after the barracks shootout, fighting spread rapidly across the city — leaving hundreds of people dead and tens of thousands displaced.
By the following afternoon, before the army could even launch its investigation, President Salva Kiir — in full military fatigues — appeared on a delayed state television broadcast to denounce the fighting as an attempted coup by his former deputy, Riek Machar, a gap-toothed mechanical engineer turned fighter in the Sudanese civil war. Hours later the police detained ten leading political figures.
Machar, who slipped out of Juba and into hiding around the time the other politicians were being rounded up, fired back in an interview with a local newspaper two days later. He called the fighting “a misunderstanding” between soldiers and accused Kiir of using the clash as a cover to remove his rivals.
Whether coup or confusion, the incident has revealed just how fragile the coalitions that once held the country together really were.
Independence has not come easy for South Sudan. After decades of war, a country the United States helped midwife into existence less than three years ago, has come to the brink of war with Sudan and watched its economy crumble after it shut down oil production early last year over a refusal to pay grossly inflated transit fees the government in Khartoum was charging to use its pipeline. Meanwhile, rebel groups have continued to crisscross vast swathes of the country, engaging soldiers and disrupting humanitarian efforts. But now South Sudan faces its most serious challenge: Unresolved political divisions have already caused hundreds of deaths and now threaten to split the country along ethnic lines. . . .

Read the whole thing.

 


Quick #SouthSudan Update

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My kids’ Christmas concert is tonight, so I’ll have to run, but here’s the latest Reuters update on the emerging crisis:

South Sudanese government troops battled to regain control of a flashpoint town and sent forces to quell fighting in a vital oil producing area on Thursday, the fifth day of a conflict that has deepened ethnic divisions in the two-year-old nation.
The conflict, which has so far killed up to 500 people, has alarmed South Sudan’s neighbours. African mediators held talks with President Salva Kiir on Thursday to try to broker peace.
The fighting that erupted around the capital Juba on Sunday night has quickly spread, pitting loyalists of the former Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer, against Kiir, a member of the dominant Dinka clan.
Machar, whose dismissal in July led to months of tensions, has denied Kiir’s accusation that he had led a coup attempt.
Rivals have fought fierce gunbattles over the town of Bor, north of Juba, the scene of a 1991 massacre by soldiers loyal to Machar of hundreds of Dinkas.
Thousands of people have sought refuge in U.N. bases, including 200 oil employees in a main crude-producing region. U.N. officials said one base in Jonglei state, where Bor is located, was breached by Nuer and there may have been deaths.

Here’s Agence France-Presse:

The fierce fighting that erupted in South Sudan this week risks spiralling into an ethnic conflict, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay warned Thursday.
“The risk of seeing the fighting taking on an ethnic dimension is extremely high and could result in a dangerous situation,” Pillay said in a statement.
She expressed deep concern over reports of “civilians killed in Juba based on their ethnicity,” and of “numerous extra-judicial killings.”
Some 450 people have been killed in the capital Juba since battles broke out late on Sunday and thousands displaced, as rebels loyal to fugitive former vice president Riek Machar battle government forces following an alleged failed coup attempt against President Salva Kiir.
They seized the town of Bor in Jonglei state late Wednesday.

Voice of America News:

The U.N. says the situation in South Sudan’s Jonglei State has deteriorated and a group of young people has reportedly forced its way onto a U.N. base sheltering civilians. Officials say there may be casualties, but they cannot confirm how many.
The United Nations says Lou Nuer youth are reported to have entered a temporary operating base belonging to the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in Akobo, Jonglei state.  The United Nations said it is trying to extract its unarmed personnel from the area while reinforcing the base with an additional 60 peacekeepers.
U.N. Deputy-Secretary General Jan Eliasson told reporters that they are working to verify reports of casualties.
“Our base in Akobo, Jonglei state, was attacked and we have reports that lives were lost.  We do not have the details of that yet.  Of course, the secretary-general and I both condemn this attack in the strongest terms,” said Eliasson.