S. Sudan denies losing key town, accuses Khartoum of backing rebels

South Sudan's government on Monday denied that the capital of its Upper Nile State was captured by rebels, accusing Khartoum of supporting insurgents in the south.

"The fighting is still continuing in Malakal, but the town is under the control of government forces," South Sudanese Information Minister Michael Makue told Xinhua over phone from Juba.

"It is true that some of the town areas are under the control of rebel forces, but our troops are engaging in fierce fighting to expel those forces," he added.

Makue accused the Sudanese government of backing the rebels in South Sudan, who launched a large-scale attack against the strategic town of Malakal.

"We have evidences proving Khartoum's support for the rebels," Makue said. "We know even the areas from which the rebels move from inside Sudan."

However, spokesman of the South Sudanese rebels, James Gatdet, dismissed Juba's accusations that the rebels were receiving support from Khartoum.

"These are baseless allegations and a desperate political propaganda," Gatdet was reported by South Sudan media as saying on Monday.

South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, plunged into violence in December 2013, when fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors headed by his former deputy Riek Machar.

The conflict soon turned into an all-out war, with 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