Several villages north of Bentiu and in Mayom County have been destroyed and burned to ashes due to ongoing fighting between SPLA forces loyal to president Salva Kiir and the defected army division headed by the commander James Koang loyal to the former vice-president Riek Machar.
Traders in Unity State, mainly Sudanese, are caught between Bentiu and the border of Sudan told Radio Tamazuj that most of Pariang was deserted. Several sources confirmed that hundreds of people have been killed in Mayom and Pariang. The traders are mainly Sudanese trapped between the war in Kordofan and in Unity State.
The UNMISS peacekeeping mission confirmed previous reports of Radio Tamazuj. It undertook a patrol to Pariang and observed that most villages along the road from Mayom Junction to Pariang appeared burnt or looted, it reported Tuesday.
Severe food, water and shelter shortages were also reported to the UN-mission by local officials.
December 21, the army announced it would attack the headquarters of the defected SPLA-division in Bentiu with ’72 hours’. But till Tuesday the SPLA had no full control over Mayom County west of Bentiu and the oil town Rabkona.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR, announced it will return its personnel to Yida in Unity State if it is provided with UN peacekeepers. According to spokesperson Melissa Fleming 77,000 refugees from Kordofan were left behind after fights broke out in mid December. There was also fighting between rebels from Sudan in the area in the first days of January.
Only three national staff of the UNHCR continue serving in Yida and Ajuong Thok camps, both near the border of Sudan.
The UNHCR reported today it had lost six pickup trucks to thieves, who also helped themselves to barrels of fuel and spare parts for vehicles and water pumps in Yida.
The South Sudan Government has declared a State of Emergency in Unity and Jonglei states.
File photo: South Sudanese civilians seeking refuge outside a compound of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in Bor. (UN Photo/Hailemichael Gebrekrstos)