{The United Nations is speeding reinforcements to its beleaguered peacekeeping force in South Sudan, where ferocious fighting was raging in the oil-producing north.
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“We are working on 48 hours delivery of several of the critical assets that we need,” and the first reinforcements should arrive by Saturday, the world body’s special envoy to the violence-wracked country, Hilde Johnson, told journalists via videoconference from Juba.
The UN is bulking up its peacekeeping muscle in the African nation, which won independence from Sudan only two years ago, amid a vicious fight between troops loyal to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and fighters backing his sacked vice president, Riek Machar.
The UN security council agreed on Tuesday to nearly double the size of its mission known as UNMISS, allowing for up to 12,500 soldiers and 1,300 police, after the violence sparked on December 15 and raged out of control.
Thousands of people have died, according to the United Nations, and tens of thousands of civilians are seeking protection at UN bases in the country.
While the conflict appeared to start as a power struggle — with Kiir alleging a foiled coup attempt and Machar saying it was really a purge of potential challengers to the president — it rapidly took on an ethnic dimension.
The violence now cleaves along a divide pitting members of Kiir’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer clansmen.
A South Sudan army spokesman, Philip Aguer, told AFP troops were fighting forces allied to Machar inside the town of Malakal, capital of Upper Nile state.
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