Off the wire
• Germany's benchmark DAX index closes up  • Egypt court jails 17 Morsi loyalists up to 25 years over violence  • China, U.S. media professionals seek ways to promote mutual understanding  • Mercury's magnetic field nearly 4 billion years old: study  • Chicago soybeans, corn, wheat down on profit-taking  • Researchers reveal additional benefits of measles vaccination  • Roundup: Finland to be ruled by "non-socialist" coalition  • Burundi gov't condemns burning man alive  • Prague hosts World Historical Medieval Battle Championship  • S. African police turn to social media in fighting crime  
You are here: 　 Home

500 more displaced people seek shelter at UN base in South Sudan's Bentiu

Xinhua, May 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) reported that more than 500 displaced people have arrived at the mission's protection of civilians site in Bentiu, an oil- rich town in Unity State, since May 3, a UN spokesman said Thursday.

"Most of them have arrived from Guit County and the area of Nhialdiu in Rubkona County, where heavy fighting has reportedly been taking place between Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) troops and opposition forces," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"This new influx of displaced people brings the total number of civilians protected at the UNMISS site in Bentiu to some 53,000," he said.

"The Mission is aware of reports claiming that SPLA forces have gained control of territory in Nhialdiu and Guit County that has been under the control of armed opposition forces for some time," he said. "UNMISS is unable to independently verify these reports."

UNMISS also reported that its patrols in Bentiu continue to face movement restrictions, which are impeding monitoring and protection activities outside the protection site, the spokesman added.

Political in-fighting between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, started in mid-December 2013 and subsequently turned into a full-fledged conflict that also forced nearly 100,000 civilians to flee to UNMISS bases across the youngest country in the world. Endite