Nearly 150 Confirmed Dead in South Sudan Shooting On The Eve of Its 5th Independence Anniversary

Displaced civil population in Unity State seeking protection and humanitarian assistance(Photo: file)

July 09, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —– The last two days shooting in South Sudan capital, Juba, has claimed nearly 150 lives, mostly soldiers on both sides.

While detailed reports are still being filed, more than 100 soldiers on Kiir’s side are believed to have died along with over 30 soldiers on Machar’s side.

While majority of SPLA-IO soldiers who died were members of First Vice President protection unit that accompanied Dr. Machar to J1, SPLA soldiers on Kiir’s side were killed by the SPLA-IO in retaliation to J1 shooting.

No one knows exactly what happened at the presidential house, however, a military source alleged that a government troop tried to force their way into J1 which alarmed the overwhelmed SPLA-IO protection unit of the First Vice President.

All of a sudden the heavily armed Presidential guards unit joined the confrontation and fought 45-membered SPLA-IO FVP guards.

A military source of SPLA-IO said their reinforcement unit fought their way through Haramats after hearing the gunshots that went on for nearly 30 minutes.

As part of measures to calm down the situation, the two sides have restricted filming of dead bodies and reporting of the exact number and identities of casualties.

A doctor contacted by Associate Press on Saturday at Juba Teaching Hospital said the count of the dead was prohibited by the national security but the morgue was full of dead bodies at Juba Teaching Hospital.

Another Doctor, identified as Chol at a UN base clinic in Juba, confirmed that he has received 40 peopled who were wounded on Friday. He confirmed that 37 out of 40 were soldiers and one woman hit by a stray bullet.

“They are still coming up to now. All of them are gunshot,” Chol said.

Despite that the situation was restored in other parts of the city, gun fighting continued near the UNMISS camp towards Juba International Airport for hours into Friday night.

The situation is now calm but remains tense and fragile as fear of unknown and mourning of loved ones overshadow South Sudan’s 5th Independence anniversary.

Fear and panic continue to build up as speculations add on that a reserved privately trained army which has been stationed at Kiir’s cattle camp in Luri has been called by the SPLA-IG army chief, Gen. Paul Malong Awan, for reinforcement.