Fighting in S. Sudan's Bentiu; U.N. shelters 9000

JUBA

Raging violence in Bentiu, provincial capital of South Sudan's Unity State, has left thousands displaced and in need of urgent help.

"I feel a sense of outrage because I spent last night dealing with violence in Bentiu," Toby Lanzer, U.N. deputy head of mission and humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, told a Tuesday press conference in Juba.

"Hundreds of women and children have been caught up in the violence at the hospital in Bentiu," he said.

According to Lanzer, the U.N. compound in Bentiu now teems with some 9000 people.

"Two weeks ago, there were 4500 people at the U.N. compound," he said. "Now it is having 9000 people escaping the violence outside."

There are reports of continued fighting between rebels loyal to sacked vice president Riek Machar and the government's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

SPLA spokesman Col. Philip Aguer confirmed that fighting in Bentiu continued to rage.

"There was an attack this morning and fighting is still continuing," he told a separate press briefing earlier Tuesday. "I will tell you more later in the day."

South Sudan has been shaken by violence since last December, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of trying to overthrow his regime.

The conflict has already claimed more than 10,000 lives, with the U.N. estimating that some one million South Sudanese have been displaced by the violence.

-Peacekeepers-

Lanzer said the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) had dispatched peacekeepers to protect vulnerable people at Bentiu hospital.

"We can't know who is controlling Bentiu, but the peacekeepers are out there moving in the thick of the battle to protect civilians," he said.

"We have sent out peacekeepers to the hospital this morning to try to prevent what happened in Malakal during fighting there,"Lanzer added.

In late February, Lanzer had condemned reports that civilians were being executed in the flashpoint city of Malakal.

"Even in the hospital, the remains of people depict [suggest the carrying out of] summary executions," he had said at the time.

Doctors without Border (MSF), meanwhile, discovered at least 14 dead bodies strewn throughout the Malakal Teaching Hospital compound.

MSF cited testimony by hospital patients evacuated to the UNMISS in which they said armed groups had entered the hospital on February 19, killing anyone who didn't have money or mobile phones to give them.

Lanzer said the raging violence in Bentiu had taken a toll on humanitarian efforts in troubled Unity State.

"I am outraged because what we have been working for the months of April and coming months of May and June may not work," he lamented.

"What is going on – whether in Upper Nile, Unity, Jonglei or elsewhere – is really an outrage to the people of this country," Lanzer said. "If it isn't stopped, South Sudan will again have a massive need [for] aid."

The U.N. official urged South Sudan's two warring parties to give peace a chance.

"Can't the negotiators in Addis Ababa, can't the leaders with influence, can't they get together for peace and tranquility in this country?" he wondered aloud.

Following weeks of peace talks in Addis Ababa (sponsored by the Intergovernmental Agency on Development, an East African trade bloc), the two sides signed a cessation of hostilities agreement in January. They have yet to reach an agreement to resolve the conflict, however.

"Give people time and space to feel safe; give them opportunities to go and plough and feed their families," said a frustrated Lanzer.

"This crisis needs a new way of thinking in the sense of humility," he added. "I really do continue to believe that South Sudanese can work to reconcile with each other."

He went on to conclude: "I see a light at the end of the tunnel – but I don't know how long the tunnel is."

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