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2nd LD: South Sudan army says 130 rebels killed in clashes

Xinhua, March 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

South Sudan army said on Monday it killed 130 rebels in clashes over two days at Upper Nile State, one of the most violent confrontations since the break-up of peace talks earlier this week.

These rebel fighters were loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, Philip Aguer, South Sudan army spokesman, told Xinhua over phone.

"Rebel forces belonging to Riek Machar attacked positions of the Sudan People's Liberation Army around Renk town in Upper Nile State where our forces confronted them, and after two days of fighting, we have managed to completely repulse them," he said.

The spokesman also said that a total of 14 army soldiers were killed, and 17 others injured in the conflicts.

He said the government troops were still combing through the area, and pursuing the rebel forces which fled to remote areas in the state where key oil wells locate.

Aguer also reiterated government's commitment to a cease-fire deal signed with the rebels, but affirmed the army's right to defend if directly targeted.

On March 6, the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development in Africa said the peace talks between the country's warring parties to end more than a year of bloodshed in South Sudan failed due to their remaining differences.

The rebels proposed that the two armed forces in South Sudan should merge after the general elections, which are scheduled 30 months after signing a peace deal, while Juba rejected the notion.

The government also refused to accept the rebels movement's demands over 45 percent of positions at all administrative levels during a proposed transitional period.

South Sudan plunged into violence in December 2013, when fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Machar.

The conflict soon turned into an all-out war, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president's Dinka tribe against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

The clashes have left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.9 million people to flee their homes. Endit