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Rebels Press Attack on Key City in South Sudan Rebels Seize Portions of Strategic City in South Sudan
(about 9 hours later)
JUBA, South Sudan — After a day of fierce fighting, rebel forces who attacked the South Sudanese city of Bor appeared on Wednesday to have driven government troops out of parts of the city, a strategic location seen as a gateway to Juba, the capital. AWERIAL, South Sudan — On the eve of negotiations to end the conflict in South Sudan, rebel forces on Wednesday seized major sections of the city of Bor, giving them a strategic foothold for a possible march toward the capital and transforming the banks of the White Nile into an impromptu camp for the tens of thousands of people who have fled the fighting.
“Yesterday our forces did a partial withdrawal from the town but they are still fighting in the suburbs of Bor,” Col. Philip Aguer, a South Sudanese military spokesman, said on Wednesday. In cities and towns across South Sudan, fighting between government troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels aligned with the former vice president, Riek Machar, has driven an estimated 180,000 people from their homes, forcing them to seek shelter behind the walls and fences of more than a dozen United Nations compounds across the country.
The mayor of Bor, Nhial Majak Nhial, said by telephone, “The government is in control of the southern parts of the city,” and added that many residents had fled after rebel forces killed civilians. Other civilians have fled into the bush — or like here, onto the riverbank — in the hope of escaping the military offensives and counterassaults that have gripped this nation in the last two weeks. With estimates of as many as 70,000 people seeking refuge here, the area outside Bor has quickly become a focal point of the humanitarian crisis enveloping the country.
As the fighting raged, talks to end the conflict were expected to start on Thursday in Ethiopia. Peter Ayuen, 25, a teacher, said his family home was among those burned to the ground by the rebels pressing into Bor, forcing him and his family to flee so quickly that they had to leave behind his two grandmothers, who were too frail to make the journey.
Redwan Hussein, the Ethiopian information minister, said that both sides were expected to arrive Wednesday. But, he added, “Talks are not expected to begin today, rather in the early morning of tomorrow.” “We left the two old women in the house,” said Mr. Ayuen, adding that he was hoping for news or to see them on another barge across the river from Bor. “I’m worried about their lives.” He said many people had died in the fighting over Bor, soldiers and civilians alike.
Neither Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, nor Riek Machar, the former vice president who is leading the rebels, were expected to participate at this point but would be represented by delegations. Miyong G. Kuon, press coordinator for Mr. Machar, said in a telephone interview that forces loyal to Mr. Machar were “fully in control of Bor.”
The fighting began on Dec. 15 after Mr. Kiir, who dismissed Mr. Machar in July, accused Mr. Machar of attempting a coup. Mr. Machar has denied the accusation. More than 1,000 people have been killed in clashes since then, including large numbers of civilians, and close to 180,000 people have been displaced over the two weeks of conflict. Mr. Kuon said that government forces were massing to carry out a counterassault but that the rebels had the strength to hold the strategic city. There was no sign of a cease-fire, he said: “As I’m talking to you right now there is sporadic fighting” in a separate oil-producing state as well.
United Nations peacekeepers have had a difficult time trying to protect civilians; on Dec. 19, around 2,000 armed youths overran a United Nations base in the town of Akobo, killing at least 11 civilians who had sought refuge there and two peacekeepers. Diplomats in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, worked to get the two sides talking, with the aim of negotiating a cessation of hostilities before the cycle of violence descended into a full-scale civil war. The Ethiopian foreign minister said that talks were expected to start Thursday morning between delegations of the opposing sides.
Leaders of several East African nations have been pressing Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar, the former vice president, to halt the conflict. The fighting over Bor has been particularly fierce. A spokesman for the military confirmed that government forces had withdrawn from parts of the city. “Our forces did a partial withdrawal from the town, but they are still fighting in the suburbs of Bor,” Col. Philip Aguer, a South Sudanese military spokesman, said Wednesday.
It was not clear how countries like Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda would respond to the fighting in Bor. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda called on Monday for nations in the region to to “defeat” the rebel forces if they did not agree to a cease-fire. The mayor of Bor, Nhial Majak Nhial, said by telephone, “The government is in control of the southern parts of the city,” and added that many residents had fled.
Thousands of civilians who had sought sanctuary at the United Nations compound in Bor have left, some bound for Juba and others crossing a river into a neighboring state. Bor carries more than a strategic significance in the conflict: in 1991, forces allied with Mr. Machar stormed the city, killing about 2,000 civilians in a massacre that illustrated the deep divisions in this impoverished land. Many Bor residents had begun to escape last week after the government retook the city, sensing that the fighting was not over.
Mr. Museveni of Uganda has been outspoken in calling for concerted regional action to halt the conflict. “We gave Riek Machar four days to respond, and if he doesn’t, we shall have to go for him, all of us — that is what we agreed in Nairobi,” Mr. Museveni told reporters on Monday, referring to a meeting of East African leaders in the Kenyan capital last week. All day long on the road south to Juba on Wednesday, trucks bumped and groaned over the rutted dirt road with dozens of people standing in the back. Passenger vans rattled past them, piled high with belongings. At sunset, a dozen barges were run up onto the muddy bank, waiting for their next chance to cross.
That raised the prospect of an escalation or even cross-border spillover, adding to a worrying picture for a region already suffering from bloodshed in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. David Nash, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan, said it was hard to know how many people had gathered on the riverbank for safety, estimating a total of about 70,000.
Mr. Museveni and Mr. Kiir have been close for years, and the Uganda People’s Defense Force provided significant support to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army during the civil war against the Sudanese government in Khartoum, analysts said. “As far as we know it’s the biggest displaced-person population in South Sudan,” Mr. Nash said. “So far a big proportion is women and young children, so they’re the most vulnerable.”
“The U.P.D.F. has always been a very good friend of the S.P.L.A.,” said Mareike Schomerus, a researcher on South Sudan at the London School of Economics. “Some would say without U.P.D.F. the S.P.L.A. would never have been able to fight the war in that way.” In cities like Juba and Malakal, civilians have taken refuge on United Nations bases, but the people here in Awerial were spread out in the open along the river. There was little in the way of shelter, and most people were sleeping under trees. As night fell, dozens of small cooking fires sparked to life, and scores of babies wailed into the evening hours.
Mr. Machar has said Ugandan aircraft have bombed rebel positions, an assertion Uganda has denied. “People are scattered over a large area but all near the river,” Mr. Nash said.
“That remains speculative, and I have no idea that we’ve engaged in such an action at all,” said Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for the Ugandan military. “But our briefing is very clear. Should we be attacked, our soldiers have a right to defend themselves.” Mr. Ayuen said his family had escaped to the riverbank Tuesday night with no possessions except the mosquito nets they had brought to sleep under. They spent the night there, waiting for the boats, and shortly after dawn, they crammed in with nearly 300 other people into a single old barge for the crossing.
There have been conflicting reports about the size of the rebel force. South Sudan’s information minister said last week that 25,000 Nuer youths had been mobilized; others have put the number at a few thousand, saying that elders from their community had persuaded many to turn back. “On the other side, we were seeing them shooting,” he said, gesturing back toward Bor. He said three people on the barge next to them had been shot.
“They are using big numbers we can’t estimate,” Colonel Aguer said on Tuesday. “But the S.P.L.A. is committed to defend the area.” At least one American citizen, Andrew Bich Abui, 32, is believed to have been killed in fighting in a separate region, Unity State.
The advance of the rebel forces sent civilians fleeing across the White Nile by the thousands as fighters burned homes in their path. The Nuer fighters were carrying AK-47’s and had several heavy machine guns and 30 vehicles and trucks, according to the South Sudanese military. Mr. Abui and his brother, Simon Nyok Deng, were among the so-called Lost Boys who came to the United States as refugees from a camp in Kenya in 2001. Both had escaped the civil war in Sudan that ultimately led to the creation of South Sudan as an independent nation. Mr. Abui had returned to his ancestral village in South Sudan four months ago to prepare for his marriage, his brother said.
The question is what kind of casualties might occur if the South Sudanese Army, alone or with assistance, tried to retake places that are in rebel hands. The fight for Bor could turn particularly nasty, with neither side wanting to give up such a prize. The city is a few hours’ drive north of Juba. “They came and attacked the village and started shooting,” said Mr. Deng, 31. “It’s horrible.”
“Regional armies need to assure that their use of force stays firmly within international law, and that civilians are under no circumstances targeted,” Ms. Schomerus said. “It is right now unclear which actors are committing what kind of atrocities — but what is already clear is that civilians are not being sufficiently protected by anybody, and quite possibly even targeted.”

Nicholas Kulish reported from Awerial, South Sudan, and Isma’il Kushkush from Khartoum, Sudan. Benno Muchler contributed reporting from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Isma’il Kushkush contributed reporting from Khartoum, Sudan, and Richard Berry from Paris.