A "false" Facebook post on South Sudan's First Vice President Riek Machar account caused the death of 272 people following renewed fighting among rival forces. 
 
 The country's embassy in Nairobi claimed James Gatdet, an official in the joint administration allegedly told Machar's army - through an update on the account - that he had been detained by President Salva Kiir forces at the palace. 
 
 Ambassador Chol Ajongo said it is this information that led the army to respond, causing the fighting in the capital Juba which entered its fifth day on Tuesday. 
 
 "On July 8, 2016, the SPLA-IO forces Spokesman James Gatdet, Press Secretary of Dr Riek Machar created and spread rumours that their leader Dr Riek Machar Teny was under arrest," Ajongo said at a press briefing. 
 
 "This was false, because Machar was attending a security briefing meeting with President Kiir, Vice President James Wani and other senior government officials at the J1 (presidential palace)," he said. 
 
 "Sudan's People Liberation Army In Opposition forces proceeded to attack the government forces at J1 at 4.15 and killed many innocent soldiers," he said. 
 
 Ajongo said that after the post was published on Friday, a member of Machar’s troops forced his way into the palace. 
 
 But he was denied access leading to a confrontation between the officer and security at the gate, the tiff causing injury of a security officer. 
 
 "One of the officers came into the palace and wanted to force his way through the doors to where the meeting was taking place. He was denied access to the building. He then shot the officer and the fighting broke out," the envoy claimed. 
 
 The Ambassador said the “falsehood” was spread when Machar was attending a security meeting with Kiir and other top government officials. 
 
 Ajongo, who was posted to Kenya in June, said: "President Kiir protected Dr Machar’s life until 11.40pm when he personally arranged for armed security escort to take him back safely to his residence in Jebel Kujor area." 
 
 He accused Machar-allied forces of pursuing conflict despite the agreement signed in August 2015 that drafted a power sharing agreement. 
 
 "Anti-peace elements within the SPLA-IO have totally disregarded peace and decided a return to war," he said. 
 
 He said the SPLA-IO were roaming the streets at night while heavily armed and without clear purpose, and refused to stop at check-points. He also said they shot at vehicles including one of the United States of America Embassy in Juba. 
 
 The Ambassador said Juba International Airport reopened on Tuesday and further dismissed calls by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) to send peacekeeping forces to the nation. 
 
 "They (Igad) should tell whether the troops will be imposed on us or an invasion on our sovereign country," he said. 
 
 On Monday, ministers from the regional bloc held a special summit in Nairobi after which senior official Tedros Adhanom urged all parties to engage in dialogue instead of violence. 
 
 He also fronted the possibility of sending Africa Union peacekeeping teams to the clash-torn country, which did not get the chance to celebrate its fifth independence on Saturday. 
 
 The renewed fighting started on Friday near State House when former rebel leader Machar Kiir were having a meeting. 
 
 The fighting has since led to deaths of 272 people, including civilians and displaced thousands of others. 
 
 Read: 15 Kenyan truck drivers killed in South Sudan violence - union 
 
 The Kakuma refugee camp is expected to receive more refugees as Kenya opens its border with South Sudan. 
 
 "There are no new arrivals so far. But we are closely monitoring the situation with the Kenya Directorate of Refugee Affairs," said UNHCR-Kenya spokesman Duke Mwancha. 
 
 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an arms embargo against South Sudan and appealed to the UN Security Council to target sanctions against those involved in the fighting. 
 
 Thousands have been displaced by the standoff in Juba and are sheltering at two UN bases, a World Food Programme compound and other areas. ||||| Rival factions took up arms again in South Sudan's capital of Juba on Monday in the fifth day of fighting between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and soldiers backing Vice-President Riek Machar. Current confrontations started on Thursday night, raising fears of another full-blown conflict after a two-year civil war. Peter Schumann, former director of the United Nations mission to Sudan, told DW: "My understanding, from what I see and what I hear from Juba is that the probability of it [the situation] escalating into a full-scale war is much higher than it stabilizing." Schumann is worried that the situation is very similar to the one that led to a civil war in December 2013. 
 
 There are conflicting reports on the number of dead, but they are estimated to be in the hundreds. The United Nations have called for an immediate end of the battles and the fulfilling of the peace agreement signed by the two leaders in August of last year. This came about after intense pressure from the international community and ended the two-year civil war. The UN has also warned that attacks on civilians, U.N. personnel and U.N. premises, all of which happened in the last couple of days, might amount to war crimes that would need to be investigated. 
 
 Ahmed Soliman, research associate at the British think tank Chatham House, says the one positive thing in the middle of this renewed violence "was its very rapid condemnation not only by the leaders themselves, but also by the UN Security Council, the regional body IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) and the African Union, as well as the pleading for peace by the South Sudan Council of Churches." Soliman hopes that this swift reaction may prevent the violence from spreading. 
 
 South Sudan President Salva Kiir (right) and Vice President Riek Machar 
 
 A historic rivalry 
 
 Both Kiir and Machar maintain that they do not know how and why the clashes started. This has raised concerns that they may not be in full control of their forces, namely the Sudan People's Liberation Army in the Government (SPLA-IG) led by the president, and his opponent's Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO). The SPLA used to be the united armed wing of the rebel movement SPLM (Sudan People's Liberation Movement), formed in 1983 to fight for independence. Largely Christian South Sudan won its independence from Sudan, a majority Muslim country, in 2011 after two decades of fighting. Then the SPLA fell into factions along ethnic lines. 
 
 Kiir and Machar have long been rivals for power. The former vice-president accused Kiir of rigging the country's first elections, and still stands by this accusation. According to DW correspondent James Shimanyula, author of several books on South Sudan, the two leaders' relationship was distorted by deep mistrust from the start: "Salva Kiir is an ethnic Dinka, the largest ethnic group in South Sudan. And Machar comes from the Nuer tribe. Both sides have their own soldiers inside the army." 
 
 A devastating civil war 
 
 It was in the army that trouble began. Riek Machar pushed for the promotion of Nuer soldiers to higher ranks. This led Kiir to believe that his rival was planning a coup. In July of 2013 he fired his vice-president and six months later he ordered the President's Guard to be disarmed. An alleged new order to re-arm only the Dinka guards led to clashes among the soldiers. Kiir immediately accused Machar of staging a coup. Fearing for his life, Machar fled the capital. 
 
 The ensuing civil war cost tens of thousands of lives and an estimated two million people had to flee their homes. It also paralyzed oil production and kept investors away, further exacerbating the county's economic problems. Because of these problems, Independence Day celebrations were cancelled this year."Oil accounts for 98% of South Sudan's economy. Almost three quarters of the government's expenditure comes from oil", says expert Shimanyula. To complicate matters, oil reserves are located mainly in the states of Unity and Upper Nile, north of Juba. Riek Machar is from Upper Nile, Shimanyula says. If he takes up arms again "and then seals up Unity State and the Upper Nile", he might split the country into two. 
 
 Renewed clashes have forced thousands to flee their homes 
 
 A costly failure to implement the peace agreement 
 
 Riek Machar returned to Juba in April. A new transitional government of national unity was established. But the two leaders failed to work out a way to get the peace process going. Experts say the failure to implement swiftly key elements of the August agreement, such as the re-integration and demobilization of combatants, have allowed tension to fester. On Monday, claims that presidential troops had attacked Riek Machar added to the tensions. South Sudan's ambassador to Germany Sitona Abdalla Osman told DW that this did not happen: "The first vice-president was with the president when this incident erupted. After that he was given a guard to protect him." 
 
 Ambassador Osman is adamant that both leaders are trying to keep the peace process going and points out that Kiir called for calm and formed a commission to investigate the violence. That raises the specter of a head of State who is not in charge anymore and the question who is. As is usually the case in Juba, says expert James Shimanyula, the capital is rife with rumors about a coup attempt that would aim at sidelining both Kiir and Machar. 
 
 Fresh leadership needed? 
 
 But Chatham House's Ahmed Soliman points out that the presence of lots of soldiers in Juba who have only recently been fighting each other and have yet to go through a planned process of reconciliation was conducive to a flaring up of violence: "It would have only taken a match to ignite something and that seems to have been what's happened here. Hopefully the fighting can be curtailed and leadership can exercise some kind of command and control." 
 
 Former UN coordinator Peter Schumann is less hopeful. He believes that neither Kiir nor Machar have demonstrated any ability to bring stability back to the country: "Both of them have to leave the arena. We need a fresh leadership; we need a completely new setup in South Sudan." ||||| Heavy fighting in the South Sudanese capital of Juba over the past few days has led to hundreds of deaths and the suggestion that the country is “back to war”. The question on everyone’s lips has been: who is behind the violence? 
 
 This question is all the more curious given that President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar have both seemed incapable of explaining what’s happening. In fact, the leaders of the main rival factions in the recent civil war were together for a meeting when one of the episodes of gunfire occurred. 
 
 Missing from the meeting, however, was the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) chief of general staff. The former governor of Northern Bahr El Ghazal state, Paul Malong, is a figure who many see as the true power behind the Salva Kiir’s presidential throne. 
 
 The power behind the throne 
 
 I have written about Malong and Kiir’s relationship before. And I have come to the unsurprising conclusion, as have many South Sudanese, that Malong is the one who holds the real power. 
 
 Malong established his authority over Northern Bahr El Ghazal and the SPLA during the civil war that spanned from 1983 to 2005. In this period, Malong dominated the local war economy and used its proceeds to cement strategic allegiances. He did this through the practice of large-scale polygamy and by godfathering his supporters’ marriages, a practice shared by other Nuer commanders in Unity state, for example. 
 
 One of Malong’s supporters was Salva Kiir. Malong provided financial support after Kiir fell out with then SPLA leader John Garang in 2004. One illustration of Malong’s influence is that he recently offered to pay for the bride wealth for Kiir’s new wife. That role is traditionally taken up by a groom’s father and his close and extended kin. In 2005, after Garang’s death, Kiir took over as vice-president of Sudan. And in 2008, Malong was appointed state governor of his home area of Northern Bahr El Ghazal. 
 
 In the following few years, as episodes of fighting with Sudanese forces continued, Malong managed to convince Kiir of the need to create a militia that would be loyal to them both. He began recruiting and training men from Kiir’s home state of Warrap, but the majority were from Northern Bahr El Ghazal. 
 
 Malong was trying to position himself as the first leader from Northern Bahr El Ghazal with national stature. The militia he led came to be known as Mathiang Anyoor, meaning “brown caterpillar” in Dinka. But it was also known as Dot ku Beny or Gel-Beny or “rescue the president”. 
 
 Lethal power and lame ducks 
 
 In December 2013, war broke out in now-independent South Sudan. It began as a political battle between President Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and Vice-President Machar, an ethnic Nuer. Much of the violence soon became codified along these ethnic lines despite the fact that military alliances did not always follow strict lines. 
 
 As the fighting progressed, Malong – with the help of the Mathiang Anyoor – organised the massacre of thousands of ethnic Nuer in Juba. Soon after, he was promoted to chief of general staff of the SPLA and he came to dominate the entire SPLA system of corruption. The proceeds were invested strategically to sustain military allegiances, both within and outside the SPLA. 
 
 Since then, Malong has continued to recruit young men in what has become known as the “new” Mathiang Anyoor. And both “new” and “old” Mathiang Anyoor have been used to reinforce the SPLA in Upper Nile, Unity and Jonglei states. But Malong’s influence goes even further. The Dinka commando units that have wrought havoc on Western and Central Equatoria states since October 2015 – despite the signing of a peace agreement between Kiir and Machar in August 2015 – also reportedly answer to Malong. 
 
 It is understood that the power he commands has led to rifts with Minister of Defence Kuol Manyang. In contrast to Malong, the influence of South Sudan’s official main leaders appears to be weak. The recent fighting in Juba and Kiir’s apparent ignorance of what was happening reveals his lack of control over the SPLA. And it is increasingly clear that the president has lost a great deal of credibility and power amidst rumours of alcoholism and health issues. 
 
 If Kiir is a lame duck, the same might be said – albeit to a lesser extent – of Riek Machar. The first vice-president never seemed to control his troops and never had as much military gravitas as his peers in the so-called SPLM-In-Opposition (IO). Furthermore, he has made the grave mistake of dismissing IO’s most experienced generals in the past year. 
 
 International powers to blame, too 
 
 With fighting returning to South Sudan despite an internationally brokered peace agreement less than a year ago, the international community must also take some responsibility: 
 
 Juba’s demilitarisation took the form of a 25km radius around the city. Why was the SPLA allowed to encircle the capital while blocking possible escape routes for IO? 
 
 And why was a stronger stance not taken regarding the fact that SPLA soldiers had clearly removed their uniforms but remained inside Juba? 
 
 Why was the national security body allowed to expand exponentially over the past few months without action? 
 
 If anything, the recent violence in Juba has shown how easy it is for the SPLA to breach security arrangements. The heavy fighting on July 10 and 11 suggest that the situation might become even worse than when civil war began in December 2013. Fighting engulfed different parts of the city. Rocket-propelled grenades were fired. Civilian houses were shelled. Government helicopter gunships circled Juba’s skies. And United Nations (UN) premises were hit. 
 
 The Juba bridge was also closed off and Machar’s troops were unlikely to back down since they knew there was no way out, especially with Malong’s commando units able to attack them easily from their bases in Central Equatoria. Machar’s troops and SPLA forces were fighting right outside UN premises and reports emerged that Nuer generals, who had remained allied to the SPLA but were now being targeted by SPLA soldiers, were asking for shelter inside the UN compound. 
 
 Real threat for unarmed civilians 
 
 Reports also emerged that both sides had started inflicting reprisals on civilians. On the evening of July 11, Kiir and Machar declared a ceasefire. The question throughout the fighting – still valid should the war in Juba resume – has been: who will protect the civilians? 
 
 Many believe that Malong is the one behind the recent events and point to the fact that on July 8, SPLA troops around J1, the presidential palace, were reinforced from both the area surrounding Juba and from Luri, a cattle camp where Mathiang Anyoor recruits stayed before the 2013 Juba massacre. 
 
 Malong did make a statement on July 9 saying the situation in Juba was under control. But this was done through an intermediary and it was not clear where the man himself was. At any rate, it is difficult to imagine the SPLA could have decimated Machar’s bodyguards on July 8 without the top orders coming from its chief of general staff. 
 
 There are rumours that Malong intended to wreak havoc and maybe even take control of Juba. He may also split from Kiir, but either way he would retain control over his Dinka militias, who are spread all over the Equatorias, as well as over some of the Bul Nuer fighters, who are based in Unity state and have close ties with Khartoum. 
 
 Malong will also continue cultivating his popularity with Dinka communities who do not want to relinquish their desire for their own state, especially after Kiir opened a Pandora’s box with his unilateral decree in October 2015 to replace South Sudan’s ten states with 28. 
 
 Depending on whether or not the ceasefire holds, and on who is officially blamed for the recent fighting, Malong may open up a new front, most likely from Northern Bahr El Ghazal. If such a war were to begin, Kiir might break with Malong to save himself and be forced to mend fences with Machar’s IO as well as other victimised ethnic groups. 
 
 Much remains uncertain. But the future of South Sudan looks grim – and not just in Juba. Other state capitals have seen troop movements and even some fighting. 
 
 Just five years after independence, and less than one year after a peace agreement was signed, a new phase of South Sudan’s civil war seems to have begun. 
 
 This article first appeared in African Arguments and has been slightly modified since. ||||| JUBA/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - South Sudan’s government and rebels finally began talks to end weeks of bloodletting on Friday after days of delay as the United States ordered out more of its embassy staff. 
 
 Marines and sailors with Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response help U.S. citizens into a Marine Corps KC-130J Hercules airplane during an evacuation of personnel from the U.S. Embassy, in this handout photo taken in Juba, South Sudan, January 3, 2014, courtesy of the U.S. Marines. REUTERS/U.S. Marines/Staff Sgt. Robert L. Fisher III/Handout via Reuters 
 
 However, there was no face-to-face meeting, and fighting was reported near the key town of Bor, suggesting that a halt to clashes between President Salva Kiir’s SPLA government forces and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar is still a long way off. 
 
 Neighboring countries fear that the fighting, which quickly spread out from the capital Juba last month along ethnic faultlines, could destabilize East Africa, and the regional IGAD grouping is mediating the peace talks in Ethiopia. 
 
 The talks had been scheduled to begin in Addis Ababa on January 1, and made a slow start on Friday. 
 
 “Both delegations are meeting the mediators separately,” said Dina Mufti, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry. “We hope to bring both sides into face-to-face talks soon.” 
 
 Meanwhile the SPLA said its troops were fighting rebels 24 km (14 miles) south of rebel-controlled Bor, the capital of the vast Jonglei state and site of an ethnic massacre in 1991. 
 
 Bor lies 190 km (118 miles) to the north of Juba and has changed hands three times since the unrest began. 
 
 “The rebels will be flushed out of Bor any time,” SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer said. 
 
 Rebel spokesman Moses Ruai Lat, based in the northern state of Unity, said it was the government forces who were on the back foot and his advancing comrades were already “close” to Juba. 
 
 200,000 DISPLACED 
 
 More than a thousand people have been killed and 200,000 driven from their homes in three weeks of fighting that has raised the specter of a civil war pitting Kiir’s ethnic Dinkas against Machar’s Nuer. 
 
 The United States has been withdrawing non-essential embassy staff since mid-December and said Friday it was evacuating more. 
 
 It also urged all American citizens to leave South Sudan - a country the size of France estimated to hold the third largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa, but desperately poor and short of infrastructure. 
 
 “We are not suspending our operations. We are just minimizing our presence,” said Susan Page, the U.S. ambassador. 
 
 More than 440 U.S. officials and private citizens have been evacuated on charter flights and military aircraft, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in Washinton. The United States has also flown out 750 citizens of 27 other countries. 
 
 The Pentagon sent two KC-130 aircraft to pick up approximately 20 U.S. diplomatic personnel from the embassy in Juba, said Army Colonel Steve Warren, a spokesman. One landed and the other one circled nearby in case it was needed. 
 
 An emergency message to U.S. citizens on the embassy’s website said the move was due to a “deteriorating security situation”. It said there would be an evacuation flight on Friday arranged by the U.S. State Department. 
 
 Slideshow (17 Images) 
 
 Kiir has accused his long-term political rival Machar, whom he sacked in July, of starting the fighting in a bid to seize power. Machar denies the claim. 
 
 Mediators say Kiir’s government and the rebels loyal to Machar have agreed in principle to a ceasefire, but there is no agreement on a starting date and some diplomats say both sides still seem more intent on maneuvering for military advantage. 
 
 The United Nations said it was planning for the number of displaced people to double in the next three months. ||||| A South Sudan army soldier, with his head covered, looks on in Malakal, 497 km (308 miles) northeast of capital Juba, December 30, 2013 a few days after retaking the town from rebel fighters. 
 
 A South Sudan army soldier stands next to a machine gun mounted on a truck in Malakal town, 497km (298 miles) northeast of capital Juba, December 30, 2013 a few days after retaking the town from rebel fighters. 
 
 JUBA Uganda's president said on Monday the nations of East Africa had agreed to move in to defeat South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar if he rejected a ceasefire offer, threatening to turn an outburst of ethnic fighting into a regional conflict. 
 
 Hours after President Yoweri Museveni's ultimatum, rebels and the feared "White Army" militia clashed against government troops just outside Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, officials said. 
 
 They said the government side was braced for a "full scale" attack on the town, seized by rebels for several days earlier this month and the site of an ethnic massacre in 1991. Thousands of civilians had fled for the surrounding swamps. 
 
 Two weeks of clashes have already killed at least 1,000 people in the world's newest nation, unnerved oil markets and raised fears of a civil war in a region ravaged by fighting in Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. 
 
 "We gave Riek Machar four days to respond (to the ceasefire offer) and if he doesn't we shall have to go for him, all of us," Museveni told reporters in South Sudan's capital, Juba, referring to a December 31 deadline. 
 
 Asked what that meant, Museveni said: "to defeat him". 
 
 He did not spell out whether South Sudan's neighbors had actually agreed to send troops to join the conflict that erupted in Juba on December 15. 
 
 But his words underlined the scale of regional concern over the fighting that has spread to South Sudan's oil-producing states - often along ethnic lines, between Machar's group, the Nuer, and President Salva Kiir's Dinka. 
 
 Past conflicts in South Sudan have sent refugees pouring over its borders and spurred on rebels in neighboring countries, including the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. 
 
 There was no immediate confirmation of the pact to take on Machar from other East African countries, which have been trying to mediate and last week gave the sides until December 31 to lay down their weapons. 
 
 Kenya's presidential spokesman, Manoah Esipisu, said it would be inappropriate to comment until the deadline has passed. Machar himself did not respond to calls. 
 
 Information Minister Michael Makuei said the rebels want to take Bor ahead of the deadline so Machar "can talk from a position of strength" once peace talks start. 
 
 "This is why he has been intransigent," Makuei said. 
 
 FIGHTING DISPLACES 180,000 
 
 The United Nations, Washington, and other Western countries that have poured hundreds of millions of dollars of aid into South Sudan since it won its independence from Sudan in 2011 have also scrambled to stem the unrest. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has had regular contact with regional leaders and spoken almost daily to both Kiir and Machar since December 20 to push for a ceasefire, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. 
 
 "What we have said is there is no place for violence here and the sides need to take a step back and move towards a mediated negotiated political dialogue," Harf said. 
 
 Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy to South Sudan, Donald Booth, was in Juba on Monday "attempting to work with both President Kiir and former Vice-President Machar to finalize details of a political dialogue and arrange for negotiations to begin in coming days," Harf added. 
 
 "It is a very complicated and tenuous situation," she said, adding that 400 U.S. official and private citizens had been evacuated from South Sudan since the trouble erupted. " 
 
 Fighting has displaced at least 180,000 people, including 75,000 seeking refuge inside U.N. bases across the country, according to U.N. figures. 
 
 Falling global oil prices have been kept in check by fears there could be further cuts to output in South Sudan, which BP says holds the third-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa after Angola and Nigeria. 
 
 South Sudan's oil production has fallen by nearly a fifth to 200,000 barrels per day after oilfields in Unity state were shut last week due to the fighting. 
 
 Control Risks analyst Paul Gabriel said Museveni's words were probably aimed at pressing Machar to join talks, rather than a threat of imminent intervention. 
 
 There was currently little regional appetite to get involved in the fighting, though "that might change quickly if there is a situation where Juba or President Kiir is threatened," Gabriel added. 
 
 Kiir sacked his longtime political rival Machar in July and then accused him of starting the December fighting to try to seize power. 
 
 Machar denied that charge, but has since retreated into the bush and acknowledged he is leading rebel fighters. He has responded coolly to the ceasefire offer and the army, the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) has said it has continued to fight his soldiers. 
 
 "WHITE ARMY" THREAT 
 
 "The SPLA forces in Bor town are on maximum alert," SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer said on Monday night after skirmishes with the Nuer "White Army" militia just outside the town. 
 
 The White Army - made up of Nuer youths who dust their bodies in white ash - has in the past sided with Machar. 
 
 But a spokesman for the government of South Sudan's Unity state, now controlled by forces loyal to Machar, on Sunday denied Machar was in control of the White Army fighters, raising the prospect that the violence was spreading beyond the control of widely recognized ethnic leaders. 
 
 Thousands of civilians have fled from Bor over the past few days, crossing the White Nile river and heading for the swamps, Makuei told Reuters. Nuer militias massacred Dinkas in Bor during an outburst of ethnic fighting in 1991. 
 
 "They (the White Army) have attacked the village of Mathiang (18 miles from Bor), killing civilians and burning civilian houses down. They are butchering civilians," said Bor's mayor, Nhial Majak Nhial, from the town, 190 km (120 miles) north of Juba. 
 
 Nhial said he was urging civilians to escape Bor as the White Army militia neared. 
 
 The reports of clashes and advances came from remote areas largely inaccessible to journalists and it was not possible to verify them independently. 
 
 Tribal elders over the weekend persuaded many of the Nuer youths advancing on Bor to abandon their march, but officials said about 5,000 refused to turn back. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington, reporting, writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Richard Lough, Andrew Heavens, Philippa Fletcher and Dan Grebler) ||||| Image copyright German Foreign Office Image caption Foreigners airlifted from South Sudan 
 
 Several countries are evacuating their citizens from South Sudan following days of fighting that saw hundreds of people killed. 
 
 Germany, the UK, Italy, Japan, India and Uganda have already started taking their citizens out of the country. 
 
 A ceasefire between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar is holding for a second day in the capital, Juba. 
 
 Mr Machar and his troops have also left Juba "to avoid further confrontation". 
 
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 The evacuations are being carried out by military and chartered planes, as commercial flights have not yet resumed. 
 
 However, Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohammed has told the BBC that Kenyan nationals would not be evacuated, as the ceasefire in South Sudan was holding. 
 
 The US embassy in Juba said it was organising flights to evacuate non-essential staff and all US citizens wishing to leave. 
 
 President Barack Obama later announced 47 troops were being sent to protect the US embassy and its staff. 
 
 He added that 130 more personnel were being sent to Djibouti to stand ready for deployment if necessary. 
 
 Germany's foreign ministry said its air force was evacuating other European nationals, as well as its own citizens. 
 
 During the fighting, Mr Machar's base in Juba was overrun. 
 
 Mr Machar's spokesman James Gatdet Dak told the BBC that the vice-president was now near the capital but refused to be more specific. 
 
 He called for an international buffer force to be deployed to avoid "further confrontation" and ensure that the ceasefire holds. 
 
 How did we get here? 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Gunfire erupted shortly after Mr Machar (L) and Mr Kiir (R) met on Friday 
 
 July 2011 - South Sudan becomes an independent country after more than 20 years of guerrilla warfare, which claimed the lives of at least 1.5 million people and displaced more than four million. 
 
 December 2013 - Civil war breaks out after President Salva Kiir sacks the cabinet and accuses Vice-President Riek Machar of planning a coup. The war is fought broadly between the country's biggest ethnic groups - the Dinka, led by Mr Kiir, and the Nuer, under Mr Machar. 
 
 More than 2.2 million people are displaced by the fighting. Famine puts the lives of thousands at risk. Tens of thousands of people are reported killed, and Mr Machar flees the country. 
 
 August 2015 - President Kiir signs a peace deal with rebels after a threat of sanctions from the UN. 
 
 April 2016 - Mr Machar returns to South Sudan to take up his job as first vice-president in a new unity government led by President Kiir. ||||| Internally displaced boys stand next to barbed wire inside a United Nations Missions in Sudan (UNMIS) compound in Juba December 19, 2013. 
 
 An internally displaced man holds his son inside a United Nations Missions in Sudan (UNMIS) compound in Juba December 19, 2013. 
 
 A contingent of peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) guide civilians arriving at the UN compound in the outskirts of South Sudan's capital Juba, in this December 16, 2013 handout provided by UNMISS. 
 
 Soldiers from the peacekeeping force of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) participate in a routine patrol at their compound in the outskirts of South Sudan's capital Juba, in this December 16, 2013 handout provided by UNMISS. 
 
 Medic peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) treat civilians at their compound in the outskirts of South Sudan's capital Juba, in this December 19, 2013 handout provided by UNMISS. 
 
 JUBA African mediators said they held "productive" talks on Friday with South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, trying to prevent an almost week-long conflict plunging the world's newest nation into an ethnic civil war. 
 
 In a sign of the nervousness among South Sudan's neighbors, Ugandan soldiers flew in to help evacuate their citizens. Two anonymous military sources said they would also help secure the capital, which lies about 75 km (50 miles) from Uganda's border. 
 
 Kiir, a member of the Dinka ethnic group, has accused his former vice president Riek Machar, a Nuer who was sacked in July, of attempting to seize power by force. 
 
 Fighting that began on Sunday in the capital Juba has swiftly spread, and U.N. staff have reported hundreds killed. 
 
 Kiir has said he is ready for dialogue. Machar told French radio he was ready to "negotiate his departure from power" and said the army could force Kiir out unless he quit. 
 
 As fighting has moved out of the capital, it is increasingly driven by ethnic loyalties as much as political rivalries. 
 
 The U.N. said on Friday at least 11 people from the ethnic Dinka group had been killed during an attack by thousands of armed youths from another ethnic group on a U.N. peacekeeping base in Jonglei state. Two Indian peacekeepers died. 
 
 The United Nations had earlier said at least 20 people were killed, and South Sudan's government said earlier 54 Dinka had been killed in the incident. The United Nations mission in South Sudan is still trying to verify the exact number of dead. 
 
 Deputy U.N. peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet told the U.N. Security Council on Friday 35,000 civilians were sheltering at U.N. bases across the country. 
 
 OIL 
 
 Fighting has spread to oilfields vital to the impoverished new state's economy and dependent on foreign workers. Soldiers from the rival factions clashed at a barracks near the town of Bentiu, capital of the oil-producing Unity State. 
 
 Some 200 oil workers sought refuge in a U.N. base on Thursday. China National Petroleum Corp, one of the main operators, said it was flying 32 workers out of one field to Juba, according the Chinese state news agency Xinhua. 
 
 "It's difficult to find plane providers to fly to some of these remote air strips. The situation on the ground is very fluid and we can't be absolutely confident about exact rebel locations and which airfields they may be controlling," said one security analyst, who did not wish to be identified. 
 
 The mediation team visiting Juba included ministers from Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti and Somali, and African Union and United Nations representatives. It was the first peace initiative since clashes erupted. 
 
 "We had a very productive meeting with his excellency President Salva Kiir and we will continue consultations," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom, who is leading the African delegation, told reporters before returning to talks. 
 
 The fighting worries neighboring states, which fear new instability in a volatile region. It threatens the halting steps towards the creation of a functioning state in a country which declared independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of war. 
 
 "Some troops from (Uganda's) Special Forces Command - I can estimate in hundreds - left for Juba yesterday," said a source in the Command, a unit led by President Yoweri Museveni's son. 
 
 "They will mainly be involved in securing the capital," he said. Some had gone by plane and others would travel by road. 
 
 "They're not going to participate in the skirmishes between Kiir and Machar." 
 
 President Barack Obama said the United States had sent 45 military personnel to protect the embassy and U.S. employees. 
 
 "This force will remain in South Sudan until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed," he said in a letter to Congress. 
 
 TRADE HALTED 
 
 A Kenyan transporters' body said trade through landlocked South Sudan had ground to a halt, with hundreds of trucks stuck at border crossings with Uganda and Kenya. 
 
 "We have a military coup in our hands which is causing a lot of instability in the country and is being played up in certain areas as if it is a racial ethnic war, which is not the case," Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told Reuters. 
 
 "We don't want to encourage what happened in Rwanda," he said, referring to the 1994 genocide there. 
 
 Clashes in Bor town, where Nuer in 1991 massacred Dinka, have fuelled the fears of an all-out ethnic war. Nuer commander and Machar ally, Peter Gadet, now controls Bor, officials said. 
 
 Political tensions between the two politicians had been mounting since Kiir, facing growing public frustration about the slow pace of development, sacked Machar. 
 
 The former vice president said he wanted to run for office and accused Kiir of acting like a dictator. 
 
 Speaking to France's RFI radio, Machar said that unless Kiir quit office "I think the people will depose him, in particular, influential people in the army." 
 
 Before the fighting erupted, Kiir accused his rivals of reviving the kind of splits in the ranks of the ruling SPLM party that led to bloodshed in 1991. But analysts said he had raised the stakes by branding initial clashes a coup attempt. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic in Nairobi, Aizu Chen in Singapore, Maggie Fick in Cairo, Elias Biryabarema in Kampala, Lou Charbonneau in New York and Joseph Akwiri in Mombasa; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Andrew Roche and Jonathan Oatis)
– It's a mere five years old, but South Sudan is on the brink of civil war. What's more, the situation is so dire that the US just brought in 40 additional troops to protect the US Embassy in Juba. Some coverage to explain what's happening: The fight is between forces backing President Salva Kiir and those backing Vice President Riek Machar, and the DW has a primer on their long rivalry for power, one that got violent soon after the country's independence from Sudan in 2011. Read this and understand why it's SPLA-IG vs. SPLA-IO. Adding to this web: A post at the Conversation suggests that a third man, Paul Malong, might hold the real power in the country. Kenya's ambassador says the latest fighting was set off by a bogus Facebook post by Machar's spokesman saying Machar had been arrested, even though the VP actually was in a security meeting with the president. The Star of Kenya explains. The spokesman, however, says he made the post after violence had started, fearing that a plot to detain or harm Machar was underway. The US has ordered non-essential employees to evacuate, and several other countries were doing the same. The BBC has details. Few details were released on the new US troops, but they're from the US Africa Command's Crisis Response Force, reports the Marine Corps Times. They'll protect employees staying and help those leaving do so safely. In addition to reports of more than 200 people killed, the renewed fighting has displaced about 36,000 people, says the UN. Worse, even before this, "the humanitarian situation in South Sudan was already dire." Read the plea for help from a UN humanitarian official here. Aid workers in the nation face huge problems, but a 28-year-old from San Diego hasn't lost hope. See NPR.