S. Sudan denies army involvement in recent violence at UN camp

KHARTOUM, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan government on Tuesday denied media reports on the army's involvement in the recent violence at a UN base sheltering civilians at Malakal town which left more than 18 people dead, Radio Tamazuj reported.

"What happened was fighting between members of tribes inside the UN protection site and the government has nothing to do with it," South Sudan's Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek was quoted as saying.

"The government was like any other institution surprised by what has happened and the kind of guns used during the outbreak of the violence," Ateny said.

Violent clashes erupted last Thursday inside the base in Malakal, the capital city of Upper Nile State in South Sudan, where at least 18 people were killed and 90 others injured while around 26000 refugees fled the camp according to the United Nations^[1] High Commission for Refugees.

The UN base is sheltering around 50,000 civilians out of about 201,000 displaced South Sudanese spreading across eight such bases in the country.

Meanwhile, the UN children's Children Fund (UNICEF) said that a number of children were injured and others were separated from their families during the outbreak of violence in the Malakal's UN civilians protection site.

UNICEF Country Representative in South Sudan Jonathan Veitch said they have registered 58 unaccompanied children, with 55 of them now reunified with their families.

"The vast majority of people sheltering in the site are women and children who have already borne the brunt of this conflict and are now once again experiencing horrific violence, trauma and displacement," Veitch noted.

South Sudan plunged into violence in December 2013, when fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir Mayardit and defectors led by his former deputy, Riek Machar.

The clashes have left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.9 million people to flee their homes.

References

1. ^{^} United Nations (search.news.cn)