JUBA, South Sudan -- South Sudanese troops on Friday recaptured
the key northern oil city of Bentiu from rebel forces, officials
said, following days of fierce fighting that has forced tens of
thousands to flee the area.
A spokesman for President Salva Kiir said the city, one of two
state capitals that were in rebel hands, was "now under our
control."
There was no immediate comment from the rebels, although the
independent Tamazuj radio station said the city--already ransacked
and mostly emptied of its civilian population--fell back into
government hands around midday after rebel fighters melted away in
the face of a huge offensive.
Quoting witnesses, the radio also said there was fighting within
the ranks of the rebel force prior to the fall of the city, and
that several fighters were shot dead by government forces while
trying to seek shelter at a UN compound.
The government also said it was mobilizing thousands of
additional troops, who are expected to join the offensive on
Jonglei State capital Bor, now the last remaining rebel
stronghold.
In neighboring Ethiopia, regional mediators said they were still
optimistic that peace delegates from the two sides meeting in a
luxury hotel in Addis Ababa would agree to ceasefire and bring an
end the nearly month-old conflict.
The United Nations has said that "very substantially in excess"
of 1,000 people have already been killed in the fighting, and that
nearly a quarter of a million people have fled their homes--many of
them fleeing a wave of ethnic violence.
However the International Crisis Group, an independent
think-tank, said reports from across the world's newest state
indicate that the real death toll is far higher.
"Given the intensity of fighting in over 30 different locations
in the past three weeks, we are looking at a death toll approaching
10,000," ICG analyst Casie Copeland said.
The U.S., which was instrumental in helping South Sudan win
independence from Khartoum in 2011, also said it feared the country
risked imploding and urged the two sides to immediately agree to a
truce.
"Today, tragically, the world's youngest country and undoubtedly
one of its most fragile democracies is in danger of shattering,"
U.S. Assistant Secretary for Africa Linda Thomas-Greenfield told
lawmakers in Washington.
"Each day that the conflict continues, the risk of all-out civil
war grows as ethnic tensions rise."
Fighting began on December 15, when President Salva Kiir accused
his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup, and rapidly
spread with government units divided along ethnic lines and local
militia forces siding with the rebels.