US sends Marines to Juba

Germany, Italy evacuate nationals, foreigners

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 13, (Agencies): The US military in Africa said Wednesday it has sent 40 additional soldiers to South Sudan’s capital, Juba, to help secure American personnel and facilities in the war-torn city, while South Sudanese trying to flee the country by road reported attacks, killings and robberies by armed men.

Amid a tense cease-fire which has held since Monday night, the US troops deployed at the request of the State Department, said Africom spokeswoman Cpt Jennifer Dyrcz.

In five days of fighting in the capital, President Salva Kiir’s forces ousted those loyal to First Vice-President Riek Machar, the former rebel leader in the country’s recent civil war, from one of their bases.

The fighting left hundreds dead in the capital, and aid workers said bodies remained in the streets.

The US Embassy in Juba said it was organizing flights to evacuate non-essential staff and for all US citizens wishing to leave South Sudan. Commercial flights to Juba remained cancelled, though charter flights were evacuating hundreds of aid workers and other foreign citizens.

The UN said 36,000 South Sudanese civilians have fled their homes due to the fighting.

Some tried to reach neighboring Uganda by road, but an Associated Press reporter spoke to people who had been wounded in attacks by armed men as they tried to flee. Many cars had been shot at or burned. Government forces had erected roadblocks to demand money from those fleeing. Some people were sent back to Juba.

In Juba, others took shelter in churches, UN bases and aid workers’ compounds, but there were reports of government soldiers blocking aid workers from moving to areas where civilians need assistance.

“There is hardly any food in the market, and people are starving. As a result, they are turning to coping mechanisms like looting to survive,” said Jeremiah Young, policy adviser for World Vision.

Relief workers should be given freedom of movement, said the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Eugene Owusu.

“We urgently call on all concerned to guarantee safe and unhindered access for humanitarian organizations to ensure that we are able to reach all people in need, including in locations hardest-hit by the fighting,” he said.

Meanwhile, Germany and Italy said Wednesday they were evacuating their nationals and other foreigners from South Sudan, after intense fighting killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Crisis

“The government’s crisis task force has decided to evacuate German, European and international citizens from South Sudan. The evacuation is ongoing and being carried out by air using German airforce planes,” said German foreign ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli.

Around 100 German citizens were still in South Sudan, and those with German organisations would be given priority in the evacuation, said Chebli.

Berlin would also help bring other foreigners to safety, the spokeswoman said, adding however that she could not give their nationalities for security reasons.

Separately, Rome said an Italian military plane carrying 30 Italians and an unspecified number of other EU citizens departed Wednesday morning for its base in Djibouti.

In related news, a ceasefire in South Sudan’s capital appeared to hold for a second straight day Wednesday after intense fighting that killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

No gunfire or artillery was heard in Juba and planes were seen leaving the international airport although commercial flights are yet to resume.

“No gunshots today. I have seen no tank, no helicopter,” said a city resident who did not want to be named.

More people emerged on to the streets but many remain cautious after four days of heavy fighting that began in earnest on Friday evening, took a pause on Saturday — the young country’s fifth independence anniversary — and resumed Sunday and Monday.

The death toll from Saturday and Sunday’s battles is not yet known but around 300 were killed in just a few hours on Friday.

Adama Dieng, the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, said some civilians “were reportedly targeted based on their ethnicity”.

The United Nations said that around 36,000 people had fled their homes for the supposed safety of UN bases, churches and aid agency compounds.

Two Chinese UN peacekeepers were killed and others wounded in the days of fighting that was heaviest in an area called Jebel to the west of the city where ex-rebels had a military base close to a UN camp for people previously uprooted in the civil war that began in December 2013.

South Sudan’s vice president has withdrawn with his troops to outside of Juba but is not planning for war, his spokesman said on Wednesday, as a ceasefire that ended heavy fighting with the president’s forces entered its third day.

“We had to move away from our base (in Juba) to avoid further confrontation,” Machar’s spokesman James Gatdet Dak in Nairobi told Reuters, saying he was in contact with Machar’s forces. “He is around the capital. I cannot say the location.”

Gatdet Dak said Machar would stay away from Juba until ceasefire details were worked out.

“He is not returning to the bush, nor is he organising for war,” the spokesman said, calling for an outside force to be deployed to act as a “buffer” between Machar and Kiir’s forces.