Cease-Fire Appears to Hold in South Sudan’s Capital, Juba

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/world/africa/south-sudan-kiir-machar-juba.html

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JUBA, South Sudan — After a weekend of sudden bloodshed, an uneasy calm has fallen over South Sudan’s capital.

Outside an imposing Roman Catholic cathedral here painted gold and white, civilians milled about on the expansive lawn. Some tried to soothe crying babies. Some sat idle in the midafternoon heat. Others lined up for small rations of food. A cease-fire had been called the night before, but many were still nervous about returning to their bullet-riddled homes.

“We all ran here for our survival,” said Ray Scot, 32, who moved here with his four children on Saturday. “And people are still afraid to go outside.”

On Monday, South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, and his vice president, Riek Machar, each called for a cease-fire to end a series of back-and-forth battles between soldiers that began last Thursday.

The two men — longstanding rivals who have jockeyed for power for years — have spent much of the last two and half years leading opposing factions in a civil war that has torn this new nation apart.

As part of a peace agreement reached last August, Mr. Machar returned to Juba in April to reclaim his old post as Mr. Kiir’s vice president. But since then, troops supporting the former warring rivals have not found a way to coexist peacefully.

This weekend was the fifth anniversary of South Sudan’s independence from its northern neighbor Sudan, the culmination of decades of struggle and years of international diplomacy to create the world’s newest nation.

But instead of triumphant celebrations, fighting erupted this weekend, forcing an estimated 7,000 residents here in the capital, Juba, to make their way to United Nations protection sites that already shelter tens of thousands of civilians who fled their homes when South Sudan’s civil war began in December 2013.

Another several thousand people found refuge in churches and schools within the city over the weekend. Most slept on crowded floors, with little food and water.

Outside the cathedral on Tuesday, Ateny Wek Ateny, the spokesman for the president, ascended the steps to give a speech to the crowd of displaced people, assuring them that the nation’s leaders had called for peace, and that the roads would be safe.

A young boy whose parents were killed in the fighting over the weekend stood to Mr. Ateny’s right, struggling to hold back tears as the spokesman made his assurances.

The recent unrest began on Thursday evening, when a clash between the two opposing sides at a checkpoint killed five soldiers loyal to Mr. Kiir.

Then on Friday, Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar were meeting inside the presidential palace when their own protective units exchanged gunfire just outside. By Saturday, the sounds of heavy artillery, helicopter gunships and intermittent firefights could be heard across the city.

Each side blamed the other for initiating the attacks.

In an interview, Mr. Machar argued that “there has been systematic and planned targeting by killing” his troops, noting that his residence on the outskirts of Juba had been attacked.

Mr. Ateny, by contrast, said that Mr. Kiir’s troops had done “their best in the fight against those who aggressed them — the forces of Machar — but now is a time for diplomacy.”

At two United Nations displacement camps, civilians were caught in the crossfire. Shantal Persaud, a United Nations spokeswoman, said that about 139 people inside the camps were being treated for injuries, and eight had been killed. Two Chinese peacekeepers also lost their lives on patrol inside the camp, and it remained unclear whether they had been deliberately targeted.

Citizens have expressed frustration with the United Nations peacekeepers, saying they did little to maintain order over the weekend in the areas surrounding the camps, let alone deploy troops in the streets of the capital.

The country’s leaders, too, were under heavy criticism on the streets of Juba, where some shops opened Tuesday as pedestrians took to the streets. Many civilians expressed confusion over why the soldiers were clashing this weekend.

“Why don’t our leaders want to sit down and solve their problems?” said James Benjamin Wani, 42, who was staying at a church after fleeing Jebel, the neighborhood where heavy fighting first broke out on Saturday. “Let them hear us. Let them hear us cry. We don’t want fighting. We want peace.”

With fatal clashes still occurring across the country, including heavy fighting in the northwestern town of Wau, civilians worry that the civil war did not end with Mr. Machar’s return in April.

Disagreements over carrying out the peace deal have bogged down the transitional government, and the lingering tensions in Juba have cast a pall over the country.

Ethnic rivalries still affect the daily life of civilians in South Sudan. Mr. Kiir is a member of the Dinka ethnic group, South Sudan’s largest, while Mr. Machar is a member of the Nuer, believed to be the second largest.

Festo Fraser, 30, a Juba resident who took shelter in a church with his three children after firefights erupted in his neighborhood this weekend, said he had been stopped by soldiers who spoke to him in the Dinka language to determine his ethnic identity.

“Many people were killed on the road; some of my friends died,” he said, blaming government soldiers for harassing civilians and looting homes. “We are moving around not like human beings, but like animals.”

The clashes have raised concerns over whether Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar have enough control over their respective troops, with analysts noting that behind-the-scenes maneuvering for power might have played a hand in this weekend’s clashes.

“Going forward, the biggest problem will be whether the military leadership accepts the cease-fire or not,” said Edmund Yakani, a prominent civil society leader.

“Clearly it was a plot,” said Mr. Machar, referring to the firefights that occurred outside of Mr. Kiir’s residence on Friday night. He said he was not sure whether the president himself bore any responsibility for the violence.

“The eruption in Juba has definitely created a volatile situation all over the country,” he added. “No question.”