Factional Fighting Breaks Out in South Sudan’s Capital

JUBA, South Sudan — Gunfire again echoed across South Sudan’s capital on Friday, a day after fighting among military factions there left at least five dead, in a new outbreak of violence that has threatened an already-tense stalemate just days before the country is to celebrate its fifth independence day.

Witnesses in the capital, Juba, described the sound of “serious shooting” in several neighborhoods on Friday evening, including near the airport, and where United Nations and American offices are. Details were scarce, and some residents were staying indoors.

On Thursday, soldiers loyal to South Sudan’s president and fighters supporting its vice president opened fire on one another Thursday evening in the Gudele neighborhood of Juba, officials said.

That fighting broke out after the two factions confronted each other at a roadside checkpoint, officials said. The military said soldiers had been carrying out “routine” checks, and a spokesman for the former rebels loyal to Vice President Riek Machar said that government troops had tried to arrest his bodyguards, when gunfire erupted. Each side blamed the other for shooting first.

At least five government soldiers were killed in the fighting, the military said in a statement. At least two soldiers loyal to the vice president were wounded, a spokesman said.

An armored American Embassy vehicle carrying diplomatic officers was also hit by gunfire on Thursday, reporters and witnesses in Juba said, but there were no reports of serious injuries. It remained unclear whether the two episodes were related, and whether the vehicle had been struck by crossfire or had been intentionally attacked.

The American Embassy in Juba still had not released a statement about the vehicle on Friday, and it did not respond to requests for comment. A South Sudanese military spokesman would not comment on the attack.

For decades, southern Sudan’s political factions worked together in brittle alliances to fight Sudan. But after the United States helped engineer South Sudan’s independence from Sudan, many factions turned their grievances toward each other. President Salva Kiir dismissed his cabinet in July 2013 over the tensions, and violence broke out that December.

Mr. Machar fled the capital and became the leader of a formal rebellion, but returned to the capital

this year under a peace agreement, along with his supporting troops and bodyguards.

Thousands of civilians and soldiers were killed in the civil war and related violence. Last year, the African Union reported gross human rights violations in the country.

South Sudan’s troops have also long been accused of staging attacks against people trying to provide much-needed assistance to the government, from shooting at United Nations helicopters to beating up civil servants.

While Juba has been relatively calm in recent months, after the peace agreement, witnesses said, the atmosphere has turned jittery in the prelude to the independence-day anniversary, with a spate of unsolved killings.

Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar had both called on military factions to refrain from violence after the fighting on Thursday, and the two spoke directly in hopes of preventing the conflict from worsening, the South Sudanese news media reported. And before the new fighting broke out on Friday, South Sudan’s military said it was treating the clashes as an “isolated incident.”