The South Sudanese army (SPLA) has deployed troops to defend Pariang County, the northernmost county in Unity State, which remains under government control even after the fall of the state capital on Tuesday.
Pariang County authorities say they have sought to secure their border with Rubkona County fearing spillover of conflict from after the fall of Rubkona and its twin city Bentiu to rebel forces led by a defected SPLA division commander.
A number of SPLA troops were garrisoned in the county, including on the northern side of the county at Jau, near the border with Sudan. Troops from this base were seen on Tuesday moving southward.
In an interview with Radio Tamazuj on Wednesady, Abel Dak, deputy commissioner of Pariang County said, “We made a line between us and Bentiu… with SPLA forces that were here in Pariang.”
Dak said that no displaced people had yet arrived from Bentiu into Pariang County in the wake of the fall of the capital. He emphasized the situation was calm and there were no major events to report.
But he acknowledged that since the latest events in the state there has been no movement of vehicles such as buses or commercial lorries along the Abiemnhom-Mayom-Pariang route.
File photo: SPLA soldiers in northwestern Unity State, July 2013 (Radio Tamazuj)