South Sudan government forces advance on Bentiu oil hub Skip to main content

South Sudan government forces advance on Bentiu oil hub

 BBC

South Sudan government forces advance on Bentiu oil hub

South Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) national army soldiers patrol the streets with a pick-up truck after capturing the town of Bentiu, on 12 January 2014. The oil-rich town of Bentiu has changed hands several times in recent months

South Sudan strife

Government forces in South Sudan are advancing on the oil town of Bentiu, which was taken by rebels last month.
A BBC correspondent at a UN base outside the town has heard heavy firing and seen government troops and armoured vehicles driving towards the centre.
Rebel forces deny UN charges that they killed hundreds of people along ethnic lines after seizing the town in April.
Bentiu, in the north, has changed hands several times since fighting broke out in South Sudan last December.
Tensions came to a head after President Salva Kiir accused his sacked deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup.
Mr Machar denied the charges, but then mobilised a rebel force to fight the government.
Gunfire The government offensive in Bentiu, capital of Unity State, comes two days after President Kiir told the US Secretary of State John Kerry that he was prepared to hold direct peace talks with Mr Machar.
Gunfire could be heard in the distance throughout the morning, says the BBC's Alastair Leithead, who is at the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compound on the outskirts of the city.
A long line of government troops in armoured personnel carriers, heavily armed, are moving slowly towards the city, he adds.
On Friday, Mr Kerry secured an agreement from President Kiir to meet with Mr Machar for talks in Addis Ababa that would be mediated by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
UN peacekeeper keeps guard the Bor camp for the internally displaced in Jonglei state, South Sudan, on 29 April 2014. US Secretary of State John Kerry has called for more UN peacekeepers to be deployed to South Sudan
In an interview with the Sudan Tribune on Saturday, however, Mr Machar appeared to play down the prospect of imminent direct talks with President Kiir.
He told the Paris-based news website that he had asked Mr Kerry "what would be the purpose of transitional government?", adding that face-to-face talks "may be counter-productive".
A truce negotiated between the two sides in January has been largely ineffective, with Mr Kerry warning of possible genocide and calling for more peacekeepers to be deployed in recent days.
A grab made from a video released by the UNMission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on 23 April 2014 shows displaced people in a camp in Bentiu, on 22 April 2014. More than a million people have fled their homes since the conflict began
The power struggle between the two men - who fought together in the civil war before South Sudan's independence - has increasingly taken on an ethnic dimension.
Mr Kiir is a member of the country's largest group, the Dinka, while Mr Machar is from the second-biggest, the Nuer.
Rebel forces deny UN charges that they killed hundreds of people along ethnic lines after seizing the oil hub of Bentiu last month - in what is said to have been one of the worst atrocities since fighting erupted in December.
The UN said that non-Nuer South Sudanese, citizens of Sudan and even Nuers who were not celebrating the rebel arrival in the town were singled out and killed.
The UN Security Council condemned the mass killings, and threatened sanctions against those responsible for the continuing violence.
Both sides have been implicated in atrocities and war crimes, and fighting has intensified with the rebels saying they are closing in on northern oil fields and several key towns.
The UN has about 8,500 peacekeepers in South Sudan, which became the world's newest state in 2011 after seceding from Sudan.
Map of South Sudan states affected by conflict Fighting erupted in the South Sudan capital, Juba, in mid-December. It followed a political power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his ex-deputy Riek Machar. The squabble has taken on an ethnic dimension as politicians' political bases are often ethnic. 
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