Six dead in clash between armed opposition, South Sudan dissidents

(laprensalatina.com)

Juba, Nov 30 (EFE) - Six people died and another 13 were injured in Thursday clashes in South Sudan between opposition fighters and dissident militiamen, opposition sources informed EFE.

The shooting took place early in the morning when fighters following General Simon Maguek, dissidents of the opposition forces led by Riek Machar, attacked a barracks of the latter in Al Wehda state, in the northwest of the country.

“Six people died in the attack, including an officer with the rank of colonel belonging to the attacking force,” the spokesman for Machar’s forces, Lam Paul Gabriel, told EFE.

“For our part, we lost one soldier and three other of our forces were wounded,” the spokesman added, saying that “the tension continues to this day, despite the fact that our forces managed to control the situation and expel the attackers from the barracks.”

Maguek accused Machar’s forces of having initiated the attack, and asked that the committee that oversees the ceasefire between both sides investigate what happened.

“My forces were subject to a treacherous attack (…) at five in the morning, which caused the death of four people, including an officer with the rank of colonel,” Maguek told EFE.

He also warned that he would call on fighters loyal to him “to join me in the fight against Riek Machar’s forces, as we will not be patient in the face of such provocations again.”

Al Wehda state has been the scene of continued tensions since some 500 fighters, led by Maguek, announced in July that they were defecting from the opposition led by Machar to join the government forces of South Sudanese President Salva Kiir. EFE

asm-fa/lds