S. Sudan demands deployment of int'l monitors for ceasefire agreement

The South Sudanese army on Tuesday demanded deployment of international monitors to supervise the ceasefire agreement recently signed by the government and rebels.

"We have demanded monitors from the United States and the UN to monitor the ceasefire and verify the exchanged accusations," South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer told reporters Tuesday.

He further denied the rebels' claims that the government forces attacked their positions in Unity and Upper Nile States.

"These are repeated accusations, but they are not true. Since the declaration of the ceasefire on our part, the government army has not conducted any operations," he said.

Earlier, the South Sudanese rebels' spokesman William Deng said Ugandan helicopter gunships fighting on the side of the government of South Sudan bombarded the rebel strongholds.

The Inter-Governmental Authority for Development in Africa (IGAD) is scheduled to deploy monitors to supervise the ceasefire agreement signed by the South Sudanese government and rebels last Aug. 26 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under its patronage.

The agreement tends to end violent clashes that erupted in the new-born-state in December 2013 when fighting broke out between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar.

The conflict soon became an all-out war taking on an ethnic flavor, pitting the president's Dinka tribe against Machar Nuer's ethnic faction.

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