Gunmen in South Sudan have seized and controlled parts of a strategic Chukudum, a town located in Eastern Equatoria region, following deadly clashes with government security forces, according to local officials. Government allied security forces have withdrawn from part of the area, which is now under the control of the gunmen, a local administrative officer responsible for the area said. Both officials said a strategic road linking the area to Torit town, the headquarters of former Eastern Equatoria state had been cut. No official statement has so far been issued by the county and state officials, making it difficult to know how many lives have been lost, or whether the government forces have eventually managed to gain full control of the town. Local residents, who preferred anonymity out of fear reprisals, have reported that Clashes between security forces have forced many civilians to flee into the bush in search of safety while some civilians are still living in a city cut in half and surrounded on all sides by competing armies. There are conflicting accounts behind what sparked the clashes. Observers attributed the cause to the arrival to the area of a group of deserters from government forces. This group, according to sources, was to be returned upon arrival or be considered to have rebelled against the government, if they refuse to heed the directives and orders given to the local authorities by officials from the state and national governments. “I am surprised that none is speaking what the events which unfolding in Eastern Equatoria over the past days”, Peter Benjamin Loriot, a former local administrative officer said Thursday. “A brutal war, as I am speaking to you, is continuing in Chukudum, BUDI County, Eastern Equatoria State. It has been going on for the past few days and I am totally surprised that no government officials, members of parliament or community leaders have come out to speak about it”, he added. Another source attributed the silence to recent developments in the state in which some current and former officials have been arrested on the orders of the state governor. The fighting has been going on for the past 7 days. The civil population, he added, has been caught up in the fight that appears the government has used it as an opportunity to go on full scale conflict against the local population. He claimed that a convoy of truck load of soldiers has been dispatched to the area on the directive of the state government after soliciting and receiving more troops from a military base in the area. Chukudum is a historical town in which the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) convened its first national convention in 1994 following a split in 1991 over political ideologies as the basis of fighting the war. One group led by late John Garang de Mabior supported a number of senior rebel commanders, including incumbent president Salva Kiir supported Garang’s new Sudan vision while a group led by the current armed opposition, Riek Machar and Lam Akol supported views advocated for separation. Splitting into Torit and Nasir factions, the two sides fought each other until 2002 and 2003, when Machar and Akol rejoined the mainstream SPLM towards the end of the war with the signing of the peace agreement that ended more than two decade conflict between the north and south.