President Salva Kiir - ReutersJUBA - 5 January 2018: Clashes have broken out near South Sudan's capital Juba between government troops and rebels, officials said on Friday, the latest violation of a ceasefire signed last month.The deal reached in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa between the government of President Salva Kiir and a myriad of opposition groups had aimed to end a four-year-old war in which tens of thousands of people have been killed.But several violations have since taken place, for which all sides have been blamed.On Friday, the army's spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said several people were killed after rebel troops attempted to seize a military outpost west of Juba held by Kiir's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). "We have no hand in what happened in Juba last night," said Lam Paul Gabriel, the group's deputy spokesperson. "Those soldiers who are friends to him (Garang) decided to say enough is enough. So they did it. "The violence prompted the U.S. embassy in Juba to impose a 7 p.m. curfew for unoffical travel.The conflict in the world's youngest country has been fought largely along ethnic lines, pitting forces loyal to Kiir - an ethnic Dinka - and Machar, who is Nuer.

Source: Egypt Today January 05, 2018 17:37 UTC