UN mission concerned over new cycle of violence in S. Sudan

The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan said Monday that it is deeply concerned about a new cycle of violence in South Sudan, where humanitarian crisis is already dire after over one year of conflict.

The South Sudan opposition forces launched an attack in Malakal in Upper Nile State on Friday and fighting continued during the weekend, said UN spokesman Farhan Haq at a regular briefing, noting that the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) strongly condemned this new cycle of violence and violation of ceasefire agreement.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA) said that the fighting near a UN shelter camp injured civilians.

Haq quoted Toby Lanzer, the humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, as saying that "military operations in Unity and Upper Nile states over the past three days have again devastated countless lives," with reportedly targeted rape and killing of civilians, including children.

UNMISS called upon all parties to conclude a comprehensive peace agreement at the earliest, and reiterated that "there cannot be a military solution to the conflict," Haq said.

UN agencies and humanitarian partners are dealing with the immense humanitarian consequences of the violence, which has resulted in more than 650,000 civilians being left without life- saving aid, said Haq.

South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, was 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 around 2 million people homeless. Endite