South Sudanese opposition forces (SPLA-IO) and forces loyal to Salva Kiir (SPLA-Juba) clashed in Panyijar County in southern Unity State yesterday and today, according to military and civilian sources.
SPLA-IO commander Gen Khamis told Radio Tamazuj from Panyijar County that there was a battle at Nyal today. He said that they confronted government forces at Nyal and drove them from the area, capturing dozens of enemy soldiers and weapons.
He said the attacking force had come from Maper in Lakes State.
Separately, a source at an international organization said that government forces yesterday morning had attacked Panyijar County from the north from the direction of Mayendit. According to information reported to the source, there was fighting all day and the government succeeded in capturing Nyal in the afternoon.
However, today the spokesman of SPLA-IO chairman Riek Machar claimed that rebel troops “destroyed a full battalion of soldiers” in fighting in the same area today after they attacked their positions on Wednesday in Nyal, the adminsitrative headquarters of Panyijar County.
“In the heavy fighting in Nyal, our troops inflicted heavy losses on government’s forces in terms of human casualties and materials,” said the spokesman James Gatdet.
For his part, SPLA-Juba spokesman Philip Aguer was asked about reporst of clashes in Leer and Mayendit in an interview with Radio Tamazuj today. He replied saying only, “SPLA forces are controlling the situation in Unity State.”
Children ‘died in swamps’
Meanwhile, violence is reportedly continuing in Leer County, which is located to the north of Panyijar. Although government spokesman Michael Makuei yesterday said “Leer is fully controlled by the government,” civilians are still on the run and reported violence is continuing.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) head of mission in South Sudan, Paul Critchley, told AFP news agency that more than 200 South Sudanese health workers employed by MSF fled Leer for their own safety into surrounding swamps along with the town’s other residents.
“I managed to make contact yesterday with one of our South Sudanese employees in the Leer surroundings, who told me that he had been immersed in muddy water for up to nine hours to avoid bullets flying overhead,” Critchley said.
“He recovered the bodies of two dead children from the swamp and reported that a woman from the group had been abducted. Someone else was looking after her baby.”
Another organization working in southern Unity State, Nile Hope, says that its staff have remained among the civilian population that fled from populated areas taken over by the government troops.
Staffs of the organization are walking with supplies of drugs to administer to the people who fall sick as they flee, according to Getachew Gezahegn, a member of Nile Hope.
He told Radio Miraya today: “It is really a difficult mission, but it is a must to do, because now we have mothers and children who have left their houses, so the health workers mobilize some of the young boys and community members so that they get those basic drugs and supplies and they move together with the community.”