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Clashes Kill at Least 30 South Sudanese Soldiers

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir delivers a statement to the press after arriving at the Juba international airport, South Sudan, November 8, 2019.REUTERS/Jok Solomun
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir delivers a statement to the press after arriving at the Juba international airport, South Sudan, November 8, 2019.REUTERS/Jok Solomun
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Clashes Kill at Least 30 South Sudanese Soldiers

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir delivers a statement to the press after arriving at the Juba international airport, South Sudan, November 8, 2019.REUTERS/Jok Solomun
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir delivers a statement to the press after arriving at the Juba international airport, South Sudan, November 8, 2019.REUTERS/Jok Solomun

At least 30 South Sudanese soldiers were killed and 13 injured in clashes between forces loyal to Vice President Riek Machar and a splinter group, Machar’s party spokesman said in a statement on Saturday.

In a move that risks derailing the country's already fragile peace process, rival military leaders of Machar's party SPLM/A-IO, announced on Wednesday that the vice president was ousted as head of his party and its armed forces.

As a result, the party's chief of staff, First Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech Dual, was nominated interim party leader from the military wing, Reuters reported.

On Thursday Machar, who played a leading role in brokering a peace deal 2018 with President Salva Kiir, accused the rival military leaders of trying to block the country's peace process.

The latest clashes occurred in Magenis, in the country's Upper Nile region, between forces loyal to General Dual and those backing Machar.

Machar's party spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said the party's forces responded "in self-defense" and killed two major Generals and over 27 soldiers.

He said those fighting on the side of the SPLM/A-IO lost 3 soldiers during the attack.

Reuters could not independently verify the report of killings. The military wing was not immediately available for comment and communication networks are patchy in the Upper Nile region.

The other side denied having suffered heavy losses and having launched an offensive.

"We have so far lost one soldier and two others sustained injuries. The fighting is ongoing," Chuol Deng, deputy spokesman for General Dual told Radio Tamazuj, a south Sudanese radio station earlier on Saturday.

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Evacuations and Call for Aid as Typhoon Usagi Approaches Philippines

A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
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Evacuations and Call for Aid as Typhoon Usagi Approaches Philippines

A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)

The Philippines ordered evacuations Wednesday ahead of Typhoon Usagi's arrival, as the UN's disaster office sought $32.9 million in aid for the country after recent storms killed more than 150 people.

The national weather service said Usagi -- the archipelago's fifth major storm in three weeks -- would likely make landfall Thursday in Cagayan province on the northeast tip of main island Luzon.

Provincial civil defense chief Rueli Rapsing said mayors had been ordered to evacuate residents in vulnerable areas, by force if necessary, as the 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour typhoon bears down on the country.

"Under (emergency protocols), all the mayors must implement the forced evacuation, especially for susceptible areas," he told AFP, adding as many as 40,000 people in the province lived in hazard-prone areas.

The area is set to be soaked in "intense to torrential" rain on Thursday and Friday, which can trigger floods and landslides with the ground still sodden from recent downpours, state weather forecaster Christopher Perez told reporters.

He urged residents of coastal areas to move inland due to the threat of storm surges and giant coastal waves up to three meters (nine feet) high, with shipping also facing the peril of 8–10-meter waves.

A sixth tropical storm, Man-yi, is expected to strengthen into a typhoon before hitting the center of the country as early as Friday, Perez said.

With more than 700,000 people forced out of their homes, the successive storms have taken a toll on the resources of both the government and local households, the UN said late Tuesday.

About 210,000 of those most affected by recent flooding need support for "critical lifesaving and protection efforts over the next three months", the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

"Typhoons are overlapping. As soon as communities attempt to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm is already hitting them again," UN Philippines Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez said.

"In this context, the response capacity gets exhausted and budgets depleted."

The initiative "will help us mobilize the capacities and resources of the humanitarian community to better support government institutions at national, regional and local levels," Gonzalez added.

More than 28,000 people displaced by recent storms are still living in evacuation centers operated by local governments, the country's civil defense office said in its latest tally.

Government crews were still working to restore downed power and communication lines and clearing debris from roads.

About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people and keeping millions in enduring poverty.

A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.