Satellite images show that more than 1000 homes have been destroyed Kaka, a contested town in northwestern Upper Nile State of South Sudan.
Images released by the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP), a project associated with US activists George Clooney and John Prendergast, show extensive damage to the town after clashes between Kiir and Machar loyalists.
The imagery “confirms the burning of 1071 huts and tukuls and some limited damage to the central market,” Satellite Sentinel disclosed in a report dated 5 April.
According to Satellite Sentinel Project, the damage took place sometime between mid-March and 2 April 2014, when the images were taken.
The town fell to opposition forces sometime in late March, according to army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer, and the SPLA acknowledged another setback in the Kaka area this past week.
The spokesperson of the SPLA told Catholic Radio Network the SPLA withdrew from Kaka on Wednesday, 9 April, following several days of fighting with opposition forces combined with militias under Gai Yot.
He said the government forces were reorganizing to retake the area. He said fighting was ongoing in the area.
In the wake of the clashes, the SPLM/A-in-Opposition military spokesman Lul Ruai claimed in an interview with Radio Tamazuj on Thursday that they control the entire Manyo County, including Wadakona and Kaka.
Reports from Melut, on the opposite bank from Kaka, suggest that the clashes have caused some people there start to prepare to leave, out of concern the fighting could spread.
In a related development, sources in the neighboring state of South Kordofan point to significant troops movements in the eastern Nuba Mountains, pointing to the possibility of clashes in the coming days, with some artillery attacks already reported.