Government forces approached a rebel-held village in South Sudan’s Unity State during clashes this morning, sources from both sides confirmed to Radio Tamazuj.

Petro Jouj Machar, military spokesperson for South Sudanese rebel forces in Unity state said, “What happened is that that group attacked southwards in Unity State in the direction of Nhialdiu and the clashes are continuing until now.”

“They started at 8:00 this morning and until now they are still continuing,” he said this afternoon. “It is one of the same attacks by the government to violate the ceasefire agreement” he said.

SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer confirmed, “This morning forces of Riek Machar tried to carry out an attack on Bentiu from the southern side but the SPLA went out and the two forces clashed on the way to Nhialdiu… and the SPLA forces defeated the rebels.”

“The clashes took place in the area south of Bentiu town between Bentiu and Nhialdiu,” noted Aguer. He said that he had no information about whether the SPLA forces actually entered Nhialdiu yet.

According to the rebel official, the fighting today follows clashes yesterday east of the Unity State capital in Guit. “Today it has shifted southward near Rubkona County heading to Nhiladieu,” he clarified.

“Yes, the fighting started in Pabiach toward Nhialdiu. Yesterday’s clashes started at 9:00 am and ended around 3:30 pm,” he said.

The clashes resulted in the killing of 12 SPLA-Juba soldiers and several others wounded. He said that about three soldiers were killed and about six others were wounded from their side. “The fighting is confined around Bentiu town. Yesterday’s fighting was in the eastern part of Bentiu and today’s clashes erupted south of Bentiu town,” he explained.

Map: Areas of control last year with SPLA-IO contesting areas in purple and government controlling Bentiu plus the green areas (Small Arms Survey)

Related:

SPLA-IO briefly shell Bentiu in Unity State (23 March 2015)

South Sudan army attacks food distribution (16 July 2014)