Embassies and aid workers are trying to evacuate staff from South Sudan’s capital, Juba, as a precarious calm settles over the city following several days of deadly clashes.
Hundreds have been killed in the fighting that began Thursday night. President Salva Kiir and the former rebel leader, First Vice President Riek Machar, declared separate cease-fires Monday night.
The cease-fires appear to have held so far. The fighting has severely threatened a peace deal signed last year between Kiir and Machar that brought them and their supporters into a unity government in April.
Witnesses have described government troops lining up tanks and firing on the United Nations base where tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering. The US Embassy and Doctors Without Borders are among the organizations pulling out their staffs. At least 36,000 people have fled their homes in Juba since heavy fighting erupted in the South Sudanese capital on Friday, the United Nations said Tuesday.
“The latest fighting since Friday has displaced 36,000 people,” Vanessa Huguenin, spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said, speaking in French. She added that the number was likely to “evolve” in light of the volatile situation.
OCHA said the displaced had sought shelter in sites run by the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and other locations across the city, adding that, “most of the affected people are women and children.”
The “recent fighting has had a devastating impact on the civilian population,” the agency said in a statement, adding that heavy rains in parts of Juba had worsened the situation. “Access to those in need is limited by the ongoing fighting and insecurity,” it warned, stressing that “it is imperative that civilians are allowed to move freely to places of refuge, and that humanitarian staff and their assets are protected to allow immediate, safe and unhindered access to those in need.”
The United Nations Tuesday launched a global appeal for $952 million to fund Sudan’s humanitarian needs in 2016, most of it to help people affected by the deadly conflict in Darfur.
The much delayed appeal expects to address the humanitarian needs of up to 4.6 million people, including tens of thousands of South Sudanese refugees who have entered Sudan to escape the violence and food shortages in their country.

Source : Arab News