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| Africa Horn | |||
| South Sudan rebels control oil producing region | |||
| 2013-12-23 | |||
| Former South Sudan Vice-President Riek Machar has said rebel troops have captured the key oil-producing state of Unity and control much of the country. Mr Machar also confirmed to the BBC that the forces fighting the government were under his command. The country has been in turmoil since President Salva Kiir The BBC's former Sudan correspondent James Copnall says the situation now looks very much like civil war.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on both men to "find a political way out of this crisis". "I demand that all political, military and militia leaders stop hostilities and end the violence against the civilians," he said. "I call on them to do everything in their power to ensure that their followers hear their message loud and clear."
In addition, a well-connected security source, and a local resident, both say Mr Machar's men have taken at least some of Unity state's oilfields. This is a huge economic blow for the government. However, it would be premature to say Mr Machar controls all of Jonglei and Unity. In addition, the government is clearly trying hard to win Bor back. That means that in the short term the fighting is likely to intensify. World Christian leaders have called for a ceasefire in South Sudan, where the population is mainly animist or Christian. The Vatican and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, issued a joint statement calling for the country's weak and poor to be "spared the trauma of conflict". "Let us not yield to fratricidal tendencies in the name of our ethnic differences (which is what God created us to be)," they said. Unity, a state on the border with Sudan, produces much of South Sudan's oil, which accounts for more than 95% of the country's economy.
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| Posted by:Steve White |