Ethnic rivalry threatens South Sudan as military factions clash

Clashes in South Sudan between factions in the military broke out in the country's biggest state Wednesday, a South Sudanese military official said as an ethnic rivalry threatened to tear apart the world's newest country.

South Sudanese military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said that there was fighting early Wednesday among troops in Jonglei, the largest state in South Sudan, and he was trying to confirm reports there of desertions from the military.

"We are cautiously monitoring the situation," he said. "There is an unclear situation and we don't know who is fighting who."

United Nations chief Ban Ki Moon said Wednesday that there is danger violence in the capital could spread to other parts of the nation. 

Also Wednesday, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir said he was ready for any dialogue with Riek Machar, the former vice president whom he accused of being behind a coup attempt. The two men are from rival ethnic groups that have clashed in the past and Kiir fired Machar in July.

Kiir "was asked whether he would accept any dialogue, and he said he is ready for dialogue," said presidential spokesman Ateny Wek.

Amid the ongoing insecurity in the country, the United States pressed ahead with evacuation efforts Wednesday, flying 120 people out of South Sudan amid fierce fighting in the capital, U.S. officials said.

Two C-130 planes plus a charter aircraft took off from Juba "carrying non-emergency chief of mission personnel, private U.S. citizens, and third country nationals," deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.

The three groups were all "safely and successfully evacuated," she added.

Americans were urged to leave the country and the State Department would "work to arrange for additional transportation as necessary to accommodate demand, taking into account security conditions and availability of regular commercial flights, " Harf said.

"The security situation was getting ugly. There was shooting at the airport," said a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, asked why the evacuations had gone ahead so swiftly. 

While U.S. ambassador to Juba, Susan Page, spoke Wednesday with Kiir "to discuss our concern about the continued violence, increasing death toll, and growing humanitarian challenges," Harf said.

The fighting began in the capital Sunday but the city was mostly calm on Wednesday amid a heavy security presence. Parts of the capital, Juba, were reduced to rubble in fighting in the past few days, said Casie Copeland, the South Sudan analyst for the International Crisis Group, who is in Juba. 

U.N. diplomats in New York said Tuesday that as many as 500 people have been killed and up to 800 wounded in the violence since Sunday. They didn't describe how they arrived at that number. 

A dusk-to-dawn curfew was in place with police and army units on patrol. EgyptAir said it resumed its flights to Juba following a three-day suspension after confirming conditions are now stable there.

About 20,000 people have sought refuge at U.N. facilities in Juba since Sunday.

Britain has said it was gathering the names of any citizens who wanted to leave and residents said other Western nations were expected to follow. Many aid workers live and work in Juba.

South Sudan has been plagued by ethnic violence since it peacefully broke away from Sudan in 2011 after decades of civil war. 

Kiir said Monday that his government had foiled a coup attempt by a group of soldiers loyal to Machar. But Machar has denied the allegation. The clashes are apparently pitting soldiers from the majority Dinka tribe of Kiir against those from Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

Copeland said key Nuer leaders in the army were defecting in Jonglei but that "events that led to Sunday's fighting remain unclear."

In a BBC interview Wednesday, Machar denied any link with the fighting and blamed it on a conflict between members of the presidential guard, saying it spread across parts of Juba. He added that government troops used the incident to arrest some of his supporters on Monday, and that he himself escaped.

"Someone wanted to frame me," he said. "I had to flee. They are hunting me down."

Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin insisted Machar had orchestrated the violence in a bid to take power.

"If he wants to become president, he needs to wait for elections," Benjamin said. "He wants to be president, but in the wrong way."

At least 10 political leaders have been arrested over their roles in the alleged coup, the government said late Tuesday.

Tension had been mounting in South Sudan since Kiir fired Machar as his deputy in July, sparking concerns about possible tribal clashes. Machar, who has said he will contest the presidency in 2015, said after he was fired that if the country is to be united it cannot tolerate a "one man's rule or it cannot tolerate dictatorship."

His ouster, part of a wider dismissal of the entire cabinet by Kiir, had followed reports of a power struggle within the ruling party.

The Associated Press and Reuters