4 troops injured as gunfire hits US military aircraft in South Sudan
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Gunfire hit three United States military aircraft trying to evacuate American citizens in a remote region of South Sudan that yesterday became a battle ground between the country’s military and renegade troops, officials said. Four US service members were wounded in the same region that gunfire downed a United Nations helicopter the day before.
The US military aircraft were about to land in Bor, the capital of the state of Jonglei and scene of some of the nation’s worst violence over the last week, when it was hit. The military said the four wounded troops were in stable condition.
The US military’s Africa Command said three CV-22 Ospreys — the kind of aircraft that can fly like a helicopter and plane — were “participating in a mission to evacuate American citizens in Bor.”
A South Sudan official said violence against civilians there has resulted in bodies “sprinkled all over town.”
“After receiving fire from the ground while approaching the site, the aircraft diverted to an airfield outside the country and aborted the mission,” the statement said. It was not known how many US civilians are in Bor.
South Sudan’s military spokesman, Colonel Philip Aguer, said that government troops are not in control of Bor, so the attack on the US aircraft has to be blamed on renegade soldiers.
The US aircraft were hit a day after small arms fire downed a UN helicopter in the state.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, said this week that an attempted coup triggered the violence now pulsing through South Sudan. He blamed the former vice president, Machar, an ethnic Nuer.
The African Union called yesterday for an immediate ceasefire in the country, where UN staff say hundreds of people have been killed in nearly a week of fighting.
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