JUBA (Reuters) – South Sudan troops will attack the main stronghold of rebel forces loyal to former vice president Riek Machar if the government’s offer of a ceasefire is rejected, a senior minister said yesterday.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in two weeks of ethnic clashes that threaten to turn into a full-blown civil war in the world’s youngest country. Refugees sheltering in U.N. camps spoke of atrocities committed by both main ethnic groups.
President Salva Kiir’s government offered an olive branch to the rebels on Friday, proposing a ceasefire and saying it would release eight of 11 senior politicians, widely seen to be Machar allies, arrested over an alleged coup plot against Kiir.
