{"id":14375,"date":"2014-05-11T06:49:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-11T06:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/south-sudan-ceasefire-violated\/"},"modified":"2014-05-11T06:48:52","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T06:48:52","slug":"south-sudan-ceasefire-violated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/south-sudan-ceasefire-violated\/","title":{"rendered":"South Sudan Ceasefire Violated"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{The army and rebels in South Sudan have accused each other of breaching a ceasefire, only hours after it was meant to come into effect.}}<\/p>\n

The army said rebels attacked government positions in the early hours of Sunday in the town of Bentiu in oil-rich Unity State.<\/p>\n

The rebels said their positions were targeted by ground attack and artillery in Unity and Upper Nile states.<\/p>\n

A deal to end the five-month conflict was signed on Friday in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

At the signing ceremony in Addis Ababa, President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar met face-to-face for the first time since hostilities broke out and agreed to halt fighting within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

But in a statement issued on Sunday, rebel military spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said the reported violations showed “that Kiir is either insincere or not in control of his forces.”<\/p>\n

For the army, spokesman Philip Aguer said the rebel attacks in Bentiu had been repelled.<\/p>\n

There has been no independent verification of either side’s claims.<\/p>\n

A previous deal, made in January, collapsed in days, with each side accusing the other of breaching terms.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the UN called on both sides to facilitate deliveries of emergency aid to a population in danger of mass hunger.<\/p>\n

The UN estimates that some five million of its citizens are in need. At least 1.5 million have been displaced.<\/p>\n

Toby Lanzer, the UN’s top aid official in the region, said roads and rivers must be opened for emergency relief.<\/p>\n

The hope had been that the ceasefire would pave the way for the creation of a transitional government, the drafting of a new constitution and fresh elections.<\/p>\n

{{‘Mass killings’}}<\/p>\n

The UN has accused both the South Sudanese government and the rebels of crimes against humanity, including mass killings and gang-rape.<\/p>\n

The violence began when President Kiir accused his sacked deputy Mr Machar of plotting a coup.<\/p>\n

Mr Machar denied the allegation, but then marshalled a rebel army to fight the government.<\/p>\n

The battle assumed ethnic overtones, with Mr Machar relying heavily on fighters from his Nuer ethnic group and Mr Kiir from his Dinka community.<\/p>\n

The UN has about 8,500 peacekeepers in South Sudan. However, they have struggled to contain the conflict.<\/p>\n

South Sudan gained independence in 2011, breaking away from Sudan after decades of conflict between rebels and the Khartoum government.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{President Salva Kiir (left) and rebel leader Riek Machar signed the deal in Ethiopia on Friday}
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{{The army and rebels in South Sudan have accused each other of breaching a ceasefire, only hours after it was meant to come into effect.}} The army said rebels attacked government positions in the early hours of Sunday in the town of Bentiu in oil-rich Unity State. The rebels said their positions were targeted by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000052121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-14375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000052121,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14375.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14375.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14375.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14375.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14375.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14375.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000052121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14375"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=14375"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=14375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}