Two peacekeepers and 20 South Sudanese civilians were murdered during an attack on the United Nations base in the Jonglei state on Friday, VoicesOfAmerica.com reported.
The two peacekeepers were from India and were killed during an attack at U.N. base in Akobo, in the east of Jonglei, one of South Sudan's ten states, according to VOA. The attack was carried out by about 2,000 young ethnic Nuer.
A delegation of high-ranking officials were holding talks on Friday with President Salva Kiir, whose ethnicity is Dinka, in order to stop the violence in the two-year-old country, VOA reported. The 20 civilians who died were a small group of ethnic Dinka who were at the U.N. shelter in fear for their life after violence erupted in Juba this past Sunday.
According to Kiir, the violence is due to a failed coup organized by removed vice president Riek Machar, a Nuer ethnic member, although he has said he has nothing to do with the mass killings, VOA reported.
The violence has killed at least 500 since it started and rising tensions may lead to a bloody civil war seen in the region in the 1990s, according to VOA.
Currently, the U.N. expects around 35,000 internally displaced persons are in refuge within the U.N. compounds in Juba, Bor and Bentiu since the fighting began, according to VOA.
"South Sudan will face a large displacement and protection crisis if the situation is not managed with restraint or if political dialogue does not take place," United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs, Chaloka Beyani, said, VOA reported.
According to White House Correspondent Dan Robinson, the United States government has sent 45 marines to Juba to aide in extra security at the embassy in a "standard procedure in these types of situations in terms of securing Americans in these areas."
The streets of Bor, the capital of the Jonglei state, were covered with dead bodies after Thursday's fighting. U.S. government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth said there were no Red Cross members to help with the bodies because they "had to run for their lives" when the fighting began, VOA reported. There is no exact number of casualties.
Shops and houses have been broken into and destroyed after thousands of Bor residents fled to either the U.N. compound or the bush trying to keep alive, VOA reported.
In another South Sudan state, Unity, two high-ranking officials were killed in an attack on the ethnic Nuer Sudan People's Liberation Army barracks on Thursday and Division Commander Jame Koang Chuol said the fighting in the barracks went on for three hours and caused panic in nearby towns, VOA reported.
During the talks on Friday, Ethiopian Foreign Minister, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the meeting with Kiir was "productive," and said more talks are planned.
According to Government spokesman Makuei, the government says they want the violence to end.
"We have given the green light to this team to continue with their efforts in order to bring peace to South Sudan. However, the most important is to see how best we can stop all these atrocities that are being committed, especially in Jonglei state," he said, according to VOA.
