South Sudan ceasefire holds after five days of fighting

Rival forces loyal to the president, Salva Kiir, and to the vice-president, Riek Machar, had battled each other using anti-aircraft guns, artillery attack helicopters and tanks since Thursday, almost five years to the day after South Sudan declared independence from Sudan with promises of aid and support from world powers.
On Monday evening, following orders from the senior leadership on both sides, the clashes ceased.
More than 300 people, including scores of civilians, were killed in the violence and many tens of thousands of people remain displaced from their homes, living in churches or sites protected by international peacekeepers.
Mary Nyabac, 32, said she had left her home in the Munuki neighbourhood after hearing heavy gunfire on Sunday, and hoped to reach neighbouring Uganda. "You can see me now with my five children, walking empty-handed. We left our belongings behind because of the fear that we would be shot and to make it easy for us to run," said Nyabac.
Tabu Joice, a 25-year-old mother of two, said that although her home in the Hai Mauna area had been at the centre of the fighting, she had decided to remain. "Many people have left their residences here; we are the only ones [to stay]. Some have gone to the church for protection but they were soaked by rain last night.
"I fear to go to such places because I have a newborn baby. We may also be shot by crossfire. We have just decided to await our deaths inside but we hope God will make the war stop," Joice said.
The violence has raised fears of a collapse of a peace deal signed in August 2015 that ended two years of bloody civil war between Kiir's and Machar's supporters. If it spreads outside the capital then millions of people already threatened with famine could be denied essential assistance from international aid agencies.
Both leaders deny responsibility for starting the violence and had called for calm while it raged, leading to concerns that they had lost control of their forces or that other political players may be involved.
The United Nations, the US and regional actors all called for a ceasefire, stressing the suffering of civilians caught in the conflict.
"The humanitarian needs are going to be very great after this," Jeremiah Young, a policy and peace-building adviser for the aid group World Vision, told Reuters. "They are going to need food, they are going to need shelter, they are going to need water," he said, adding that the need for shelter and clean water was pressing as it was the rainy season.
The UN called for protection of those uprooted by fighting and for easy movement of humanitarian supplies. "It is imperative that civilians are allowed to move freely to places of refuge, and that humanitarian staff and their assets are protected to allow immediate, safe and unhindered access to those in need," a UN spokeswoman, Alessandra Vellucci, told a news briefing in Geneva.
The rival leaders, who have long fought in politics and on the battlefield, could meet or hold telephone talks on Tuesday to shore up the ceasefire, said Machar's spokesman, James Gatdek Dak.
"Machar is committed to implementation of the peace agreement. If Kiir can reciprocate, I believe they can build confidence," he said. "If one party is not committed to implementation of the peace agreement, I doubt that they will successfully agree to work together."
The civil war, which broke out in December 2013 after Kiir sacked Machar as vice-president, killed thousands of people, drove more than 2.5 million people from their homes and left almost half the nation of 11 million struggling to find enough food.
Oil production, a vital revenue source for the impoverished nation, has plummeted. Fighting often followed ethnic lines, pitting Machar's Nuer group against Kiir's Dinka.
Machar returned to Juba in April, retaking the post of vice-president, a move seen as a step towards securing the peace. But experts say the failure to implement elements of the peace deal, such as integrating rival forces, increased the chance of further fighting.
Machar's side says the flare-up on Thursday, which led to the street battles, was triggered by the shooting of one of the vice-president's officers.
Reech Malual, a 28-year-old media consultant in Juba, said he blamed both men for the recent bloodshed. "I am sure [they] had the effective command of their forces. I am still hoping perhaps to hear from the two leaders," he said. "What they will say is what will decide the future of my country. If they declare war again then it will never end."
Source: The Guardian.com