Several people have died in South Sudan after an attempt by the UN to evacuate national army soldiers came under fire, the UN has said.

One crew member died after a UN helicopter was fired upon, a statement issued by its mission in South Sudan, Unmiss. It added that an injured South Sudanese general and a few other soldiers also died in the rescue bid in Upper Nile state.

The UN declared that the attack on its helicopter “may constitute a war crime”.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir later said that a second helicopter did take off after the attack, but crash landed and killed all those on board. But Unmiss reported that both of its planes arrived safely in Malakal.
Twenty-seven South Sudanese soldiers were killed in total, Information Minister Michael Makuei is quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.

Weeks of fighting in Upper Nile has threatened a already fragile peace process between President Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar.

In 2013, a row between the two leaders degenerated into a five-year civil war that left 400,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced.

A peace agreement was signed in 2018 but the process has been tense ever since.

The latest fighting in Upper Nile is between the army and the White Army, an ethnic militia that had joined Machar during the war.

In agreement with the White Army and the South Sudan army, Unmiss has been evacuating wounded soldiers from the conflict zone.

Unmiss head Nicholas Haysom denounced the attack on his mission’s personnel as “utterly abhorrent and potentially a war crime under international law. We regret deeply the tragic death of our colleague and extend our sincere condolences to his family.

“We also regret the death of those whom we were trying to extract, especially when assurances of safe passage had been given.”

President Kiir named the slain army general as Gen Majur Dak, who led the forces stationed in Nasir, a region in Upper Nile.

Apart from the fighting, a wave of arrests has sparked concerns of a slide back into war in South Sudan.

Some of Machar’s supporters, including the petroleum minister and a senior army general, were detained earlier this week.

After Friday’s attack, Kirr urged the nation to “remain calm”.

“I have repeated time and time again, that our country would not slide back into war. Let no-one take the law into their own hands. The government, which I am chairing, will handle this crisis,” he said.

South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation, having gained independence from Sudan in 2011.