S. Sudan's gov't says fully controlled strategic town

The South Sudanese government on Monday said it had fully controlled the strategic town Malakal, capital of the oil-rich Upper Nile State.

"Our forces fully controlled Malakal town today ... The rebel forces have retreated and fled outside the town. Our forces are still pursuing the remnants of the rebels," Michael Makuei, South Sudan's information minister and government spokesman, told Xinhua over phone from Juba on Monday.

Meantime Makuei announced that the government was taking measures to tackle the humanitarian situation in Malakal, as "the rebels have exercised systematic destruction in the town and completely looted it," which has led to "an appalling humanitarian situation."

South Sudan has recently been witnessing escalating confrontations between government forces and the rebels led by former Vice-President Riek Machar, particularly in the oil-rich Unity and Upper Nile States.

The African Union has earlier demanded imposing sanctions and an arms embargo on South Sudan's rival leaders. The UN Security Council last week also condemned the escalating violence in the country, and expressed willingness to impose sanctions against those who threaten peace and stability in the newly-born state.

However, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Saturday warned that any new sanctions would only further escalate the current tension.

South Sudan gained its independence in 2011, but plunged into violence in December 2013 as 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