7 Dead as Gunmen Attack UN Base in South Sudan

A South Sudanese official said seven people were killed on Thursday and many others injured, when unidentified gunmen attacked a UN base in Malakal in South Sudan.
Deng Amon, a Native Administration Leader in Malakal, the capital city of Upper Nile State, said that it was a brutal and sudden attack. He explained that the attackers used machine guns and Kalashnikov rifles against helpless civilians on Thursday morning. He said several others were injured in the attack but they have not been counted yet. “They opened fire directly on the civilians. “The situation is still tense in spite withdrawal of the attackers. There is a state of panic inside the base,” he said. Amon said the UN base in Malakal was sheltering around 50,000 civilians out of about 201,000 South Sudanese displaced persons living in eight UN bases across the country. South Sudan plunged into violence in December 2013, when fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir Mayardit and defectors led by his former deputy, Riek Machar. The clashes have left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.9 million people to flee their homes.