South Sudanese rebels said they had taken control of the capital of oil-producing Upper Nile state yesterday, in the first fighting in a major town since rebels and the government signed a ceasefire last month.
The Juba government confirmed an assault was launched but denied rebels controlled the town, which lies 650km north of the national capital, Juba. It is also located on the fringes of one country’s main oil-producing areas.
The clashes will fuel concerns over the security of South Sudan’s northern oil fields — an economic lifeline for the world’s newest state — and raise pressure on both camps to revive stalled peace talks in Ethiopia.
Gathoth Gatkuoth, commander for rebel forces in Upper Nile who is a close ally of former South Sudanese vice president Riek Machar, said by telephone that his forces struck Malakal yesterday morning and swiftly retook the dusty market town.
“The rebels have violated the ceasefire and attacked Malakal this morning,” said Philip Aguer, spokesman for the government army, denying the town had fallen.
Aguer said that fighting continued in Malakal’s southern area although he said communication had been lost.
Aguer’s comments came after a spokesman for Upper Nile’s regional administration said clashes began about 7am and that the army was engaged in battles in Malakal’s northern, southern and central zones.
A Reuters photographer, who had been travelling with rebels this month, said the forces had been moving toward Malakal.
The rebel assault on the town may be aimed at strengthening its hand before a second round of peace talks begin.
Situated on the banks of the White Nile, Malakal first fell to rebels after fighting broke out in the middle of December last year before government forces recaptured it last month.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir’s government and rebels who support Machar have both accused the other of violating the Jan. 23 ceasefire deal brokered by east African states.
Thousands of people have been killed and more than 800,000 have fled their homes since fighting was triggered by a power struggle between Kiir and Machar, whom Kiir sacked in July last year.
UN spokesman in South Sudan Joe Contreras said a UN camp in Malakal, where many of the displaced people had fled for protection, had been caught in the crossfire.
South Sudan says it has been forced to cut oil production by a fifth to 200,000 barrels per day, all of which is pumped from Upper Nile. Oil accounts for 98 percent of government revenues.
Malakal lies about 140km from Paloch, an oil complex where a key crude oil processing facility is situated.
“All the oil from the fields around Upper Nile is pumped to Paloch,” said Jacob Jok Dut, director of the Centre for Democracy and International Analysis, who follows the oil industry closely. “If Malakal comes under rebel control, then definitely there will be tension in and around Upper Nile.”
Peace talks had been due to resume last week, but were held up by a rebel demand that four remaining political prisoners held by the government be released and the Ugandan military, which is supporting Kiir’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army, withdraw from South Sudan.
The government says the detainees tried to launch a coup.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but