South Sudan, rebels accuse each other of breaking ceasefire

South Sudan army and rebel forces accused each other on Sunday of breaking a ceasefire hours after it came into effect.

President Salva Kiir and rebel commander Riek Machar met face to face on Friday to sign the deal – the second time the two sides promised to stop fighting after an accord in January swiftly collapsed.

But Sudanese army spokesman, Philip Aguer, said his forces had been attacked in two positions in oil producing Unity State, one of them near the flashpoint town of Bentiu, where an ethnic massacre in April deepened international worries of a slide into genocide.

“The rebels attacked only six hours after the ceasefire came into effect,” Aguer told Reuters, although he said the government’s SPLA army was able to repulse both assaults.

The latest ceasefire was signed on Friday and all fighting was supposed to stop 24 hours later.

In rival accusations, however, rebel military spokesman, Lul Ruai Koang, said the army had also launched attacks in Unity State and Upper Nile State, another oil producing region.

He said shelling on Upper Nile rebel positions started a few hours before the ceasefire deadline and continued up until Sunday morning.

“The latest violation of the agreement to resolve the crisis in South Sudan shows that Kiir is either insincere or not in control of his forces,” the rebel military spokesman said.

Mediators had demanded Kiir and Machar meet for face-to-face talks in Ethiopia this time, rather than leave any ceasefire to negotiators, to ensure a personal commitment to making it hold.

Analysts have suggested in the past that there was a risk that troops on the ground might not always follow their commanders’ orders in a conflict that increasingly followed deep ethnic divisions, pitting Kiir’s Dinka people against the Nuer of Machar.

There was no immediate independent verification of either report of fighting as an official from the UN mission in South Sudan had no immediate word about any violations that could threaten to extend a conflict that had already lasted about five months.

Securing independent confirmation of incidents via ropey communications across a poor country the size of Texas is often a slow process.

The US and European Union states, which have been pressing hard for a deal, welcomed Friday’s agreement and urged both leaders to issue immediate orders for a halt to fighting.

Washington, which had already slapped sanctions on commanders from each side, warned of further steps if fighting continued.

The EU also said it was considering punitive measures on those who committed rights abuses or blocked talks.