JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan’s authorities on Monday requested civilians to go away a northern space a day after the military carried out an airstrike in opposition to an armed group accused of overrunning a army base and attacking a U.N helicopter.
The group’s assaults in Nasir County have threatened a peace deal signed in 2018 by President Salva Kiir and his rival-turned-vice president, Riek Machar, that ended a five-year civil warfare throughout which over 400,000 individuals had been killed.
Data Minister Michael Makuei Lueth instructed journalists that any civilian in a army zone and refusing to go away “might be handled accordingly.”
Lueth confirmed that the military had carried out an airstrike in Nasir County on Sunday evening and would proceed to take action.
Nasir County Commissioner Gatluak Lew Thiep instructed native media shops that greater than a dozen civilians had been killed within the airstrike.
The military didn’t verify killing civilians.
Authorities troops have been clashing in Nasir County with an armed group, generally known as the White Military, that some imagine is allied with Machar.
Kiir angered Machar’s faction in current weeks by firing officers seen as loyal to Machar, who mentioned that “persistent violations by way of unilateral choices and decrees threaten the very existence” of the 2018 peace deal.
Authorities troops earlier this month surrounded Machar’s residence within the capital, Juba, and several other of his allies had been arrested after the White Military overran the army base in Nasir County.
