South Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) national army soldiers
walk past burnt houses and buildings as they patrol in the town of
Bentiu on January 12, 2014. PHOTO | SIMON MAINA | AFP
By AFP
In Summary
- After skirmishes outside the town earlier this week, rebels on Wednesday attacked the centre, with aid workers nearby reporting heavy machine gunfir
South Sudan's army has repulsed rebel attacks on
the key northern oil hub town of Bentiu, the defence minster said
Thursday, saying many had been killed or wounded in fierce fighting.
"We have a lot of wounded people we are trying to
evacuate from Bentiu," Defence Minister Kuol Manyang told AFP Thursday,
adding that the town remained under the control of the army. "Bentiu is
under control, there is calm now," he said.
After skirmishes outside the town earlier this
week, rebels on Wednesday attacked the centre, with aid workers nearby
reporting heavy machine gunfire and explosions.
The fighting marks an end to a brief lull in
hostilities in the country's 10-month-old civil war after the end of the
rainy season which made many roads impassable. The town, state capital
of the previously key oil-producing Unity state, has changed hands
several times since the war broke out in December 2013, but has been in
government hands since May.
When rebels loyal to ousted vice president Riek
Machar stormed the town in April, they unleashed two days of ethnic
slaughter as they hunted down civilians sheltering in mosques, churches
and a hospital, according to the UN.
The defence minister said he did not have exact
numbers of those killed and wounded, and whether they were soldiers or
civilians.
"There must be deaths, because that is war," Manyang said.
"There must be deaths, because that is war," Manyang said.
Both sides in the conflict — Machar's forces and
troops loyal to President Salva Kiir — have been accused of war crimes
including mass killings, rape, attacks on hospitals and places of
worship and recruiting child soldiers.
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