NAIROBI (Reuters) - Heavy fighting erupted on Friday in the South Sudanese town of Pagak near the border with Ethiopia when rebels launched an offensive against government forces, the rebels said. Dickson Gatluak Jock, a spokesman for the forces of South Sudan's First Vice President Taban Deng Gai, confirmed that they were engaged in fighting. South Sudan descended into civil war in 2013, only two years after it won independence, when President Salva Kiir fired his deputy, Riek Machar, unleashing a conflict that has since splintered along multiple ethnic lines. The rebels fighting government forces in South Sudan remain loyal to Machar. UNMISS, the U.N. peacekeeping force in South Sudan, told Reuters in an email the situation in Pagak was "extremely worrying" and urged all combatants to show restraint.

Source: Ethiopian News August 11, 2017 10:30 UTC