Nearly 30 aid workers have been evacuated from Aburoc area in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State due to deteriorating security on Monday, the UN Mission in the country said.

“In Aburoc, the only detail I have is that we had to withdraw, unfortunately, a number of aid workers early this week because of the fighting,” David Shearer, the head of UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), told reports on Thursday.

He urged all South Sudan’s warring parties pull back because there are civilians in Aburoc. “Obviously, the civilians that the humanitarian organisations had been helping. I have been there and visited that area and the overwhelming number of them are women and children and older people,” he said.

Shearer expressed concern over continuing fighting in the Upper Nile and Equatoria regions.

Separately, the official spokesman for the rebel-appointed governor of Fashoda Musa Akiech accused government forces of launching attacks on their positions before attacking Aburoc camp. He claimed that at least 10 people were killed and several shops were looted during the attack.

Meanwhile, the information minister of Fashoda state Kur Akuoch Deng denied Akiech’s claims, saying internally displaced people at Aburoc camp were not affected by fighting in the area.