Fighting moved closer to the capital of Unity State today causing huge numbers of villagers from Rubkona County and sending panic among townsmen in Bentiu and its twin city Bentiu as thousands began to desert the city.
Bentiu has been in the hands of defected troops loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the first week of the crisis sparked in mid December in Juba.
A chief in Bentiu explained that many people were leaving their homes for the UN bases and others were running to the bush. Even some people who were already inside the UN bases considered it unsafe there and left from the city.
Another resident said that the Nuer families are running to the southern UN compound in Bentiu, while the other groups like Dinkas and Sudanese are remaining in the UN compound north of the city.
South Sudan’s government has repeatedly declared its intention to retake the city but its forces were slowed down by heavy fighting in Mayom County to the west.
The army spokesman today confirmed “concentrated fighting” between Mayom and Bentiu, describing the fighting as “ongoing” without commenting further.
A trader living inside the UN base north of Bentiu says people there are afraid that that the ethnic Nuer army defectors who now control Bentiu could take revenge on other groups before they abandon the town. He said they have not seen soldiers leaving yet and he expects fighting soon.
Villagers on the run
A local reporter in Bentiu said some people in the city were still remaining in their homes and pointed out that many people had actually arrived to the city from outlying areas that were in the path of the government advance.
He said there was fighting today at Tor al-Abyad, known as Lor Lam in Nuer. Under good driving conditions this location is about an hour’s drive from Bentiu.
Likewise, a BBC correspondent in Bentiu reported that government troops are believed to be about 25 kilometres from the city.
One possible route for the army’s advance would be via Kaljak and Unity oil field.
Civilians from Lor are already coming via Kaljak toward Rubkona, the city on the opposite bank of the Bahr al-Ghazal river from Bentiu. Many of those traveling are women and children accompanied by cattle.
A woman and husband who evacuated the Lor area this morning and arrived in Rubkona by nightfall said they left their home because they feared their cattle could be taken and their children killed by attackers.
Moses Ruai, spokesman of the interim government that was appointed by the state’s self-declared military governor, downplayed the exodus says it is “just a bit of confusion because civilians are lacking food so some have moved to the villages.
In order to discourage an exodus of people from Bentiu city the defected 4th Division commander spoke over state radio staying that nobody should leave home and there would soon be good news for everyone.
Already before the latest fighting there were more than 8,000 people displaced in Bentiu and sheltering at UN bases, with thousands more elsewhere in the state including 1,900 in Koch, 3,000 in Pariang, 650 in Mayendit, and 1,900 in Leer, according to the UN.
Additionally, yesterday the commissioner of Mayom told Radio Tamazuj that half the entire population of his county was displaced including the entire town, which he said had been burnt. Several villages in the same area were found by a UN factfinding mission burnt to ashes.
The bridge between Bentiu and Rubkona is still functioning, but both sides have confirmed that one or more bridges were destroyed in Mayom County.
Photo: An internally displaced man holds his son inside a United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compound in Juba December 19, 2013. (Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)