12 July 2017•Update: 12 July 2017
By Parach Mach
Juba, South Sudan
At least 250 children and their caretakers in a South Sudanese orphanage have been besieged as government and opposition forces take up battle positions in the vicinity, the UN warned on Wednesday
The head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, David Shearer said the "growing tension" put innocent lives in danger in the orphanage located just outside the town of Torit, 180 km (nearly 112 miles) southeast of capital, Juba
“It’s unacceptable that 250 innocent children, and the people who care for them, find themselves in no man’s land between the warring parties,” Special Representative of the secretary general Shearer, told journalists in a news conference in Juba on Wednesday.
He said government and opposition forces had taken up battle positions around the orphanage and no one was allowed in or out.
He said, the town could soon face intense fighting and that the UN had been denied access to the area.
“[The UN] has asked for access to the orphanage, but locally on the ground this has been denied on numerous occasions,” Shearer said.
Last week, heavy fighting erupted close to Pagak, near the Ethiopian border, between government troops and fighters loyal to former first vice president Riek Machar despite a declaration of unilateral cease-fire by President Salva Kiir.
“At least 25 aid workers have been evacuated from Pagak, the opposition headquarters and stronghold, due to growing insecurity in the region,” Shearer said saying 5,000 people had passed into Ethiopia as refugees.
Brig. Gen. Dominic Santos Chol, a deputy military spokesman for the South Sudan army, blamed opposition troops allied to Machar for the ongoing hostilities.
“The government forces are defending their positions from Riek Machar’s anti-peace elements, there is nothing like offensives, and for the denial of access to UN in Torit, this is something that has been sorted out and they will go by today or tomorrow,” Brig. Santos told Anadolu agency via phone.
South Sudan has been consumed by violence that began in late 2013 after President Kiir fired his vice president, Riek Machar, and has left tens of thousands of people dead.
