South Sudan forces clash with feared ‘White Army’ militia

South Sudanese troops today clashed with ethnic Nuer "White Army" militia and other rebel factions loyal to former vice president Riek Machar near the flashpoint town of Bor, government officials said.

"Shootings have taken place just outside, to the north of Bor," Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Philip Aguer said by phone from Juba, 190km south of Bor.

Earlier, Mr Aguer said there was fighting in the town.

Information Minister Michael Makuei also said SPLA troops clashed with rebels on the edge of the Jonglei state capital. Bor town Mayor Nhial Majak Nhial said there was no fighting in the town centre.

Government troops in Bor have for days been bracing themselves for an attack by the feared White Army militia, which also was involved in a 1991 massacre of ethnic Dinkas in Bor. A rebel spokesman has denied Machar controls the White Army. Two weeks of clashes have already killed at least 1,000 people in the world’s newest nation and raised fears of an all-out ethnic-based civil war in the oil producing country. “We anticipate a full-scale attack soon. The SPLA forces in Bor town are on maximum alert,” Mr Aguer added. The rebels were pushed out of Bor on December 24th after days of fierce clashes.

Hundreds of people fled Bor today as the army warned of an imminent attack by the White Army militia.

The White Army - made up of Nuer youths who dust their bodies in white ash - has in the past sided with Machar, the Nuer former vice president of South Sudan who the government accuses of starting the fighting.

But a spokesman for the government of South Sudan’s Unity state, now controlled by forces loyal to Machar, yesterday denied he was in control of the White Army fighters, raising the prospect that the violence was spreading beyond the control of widely-recognised ethnic leaders.

The White Army is recognised by the ash, prepared from burnt cow dung, with which they cover themselves to ward off insects. They are armed with machetes, sticks and guns.

The latest fighting has left South Sudan, one of the world’s biggest recipients of aid, facing its most significant crisis since it gained independence from northern neighbour Sudan in 2011.

Western powers and bordering countries have scrambled to stem the unrest, worried the conflict could spill over porous borders and destabilise fragile East Africa.

South Sudan’s neigbours have called on the warring factions to lay down their arms and begin peace talks by December 31st.

Uganda’s president said today East African nations had agreed to unite to defeat Machar if he rejected a ceasefire offer, threatening to turn an outburst of ethnic fighting into a regional conflict.

"We gave Riek Machar four days to respond (to the ceasefire offer) and if he doesn't we shall have to go for him, all of us. That is what we agreed in Nairobi," Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni told reporters in South Sudan's capital, Juba.

Asked what that meant, Mr Museveni said: “to defeat him.”

Bor’s mayor, Nhial Majak Nhial, said he was urging civilians to escape the town, the capital of Jonglei state.

The unrest in South Sudan and festering instability in Libya pushed oil prices towards $113 per barrel. South Sudan, a nation the size of France, has the third-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa after Angola and Nigeria, according to BP.

Reuters