Two Ugandan nationals working in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, have been killed, according to reports.
Their identities are yet to be known but minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Hon. Amelia Kyambadde is expected release a statement about the plight of Ugandan traders in Juba on Tuesday.
Over the past days, hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting Vice-President Riek Machar.
Ugandan traders, UN compounds and civilians have also been targeted, something the Security Council said could constitute a war crime.
The fighting has stopped flights to and from Juba airport and a fresh UPDF return now seems inevitable.
Meanwhile Uganda Peoples Defence Forces spokesperson Paddy Ankunda has revealed that Uganda will only deploy in South Sudan upon official request from the government.
If Uganda sends its troops in, it will be in line with African Union’s tenet of protecting governments in power in accordance with a country’s constitution.
This comes moments after fighting has broken out again, hours subsequently the UN Security Council called for an end to the violence.
“We’re concerned about situation in South Sudan, given likely repercussions, but that’s all. We’re not deployed there,” Ankunda told NBS TV on Monday.
Uganda hasn’t deployed soldiers in South Sudan yet following heavy gunfire, he insisted but with Ugandans traders and expatriates trapped in the highly volatile youngest African nation and uncertain of what will happen next if the fighting intensifies, UPDF could step in and save the day.
There have, however, been UPDF forces in South Sudan’s Western Equatorial region, where they have been stationed to pursue and combat the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.
EagleOnline however understands that deployment of armed personnel at border with South Sudan was completed on Sunday evening.
Kampala first sent columns of between 2,000 and 3,000 soldiers into its neighbor in late 2013 to prop up the government of President Salva Kiir soon after clashes erupted with troops loyal to South Sudan’s sacked vice president Riek Machar. Most of the troops were posted around South Sudan’s capital Juba.
Ugandan troops voluntarily withdrawal from South Sudan last October because of a key demand of rebels loyal to former vice president Machar during peace negotiations to end the nation’s conflict but opposition faction of the SPLA-IO accused the UPDF of instead taking side in the internal war and prolonging it.
Kiir an acquaintance to Museveni briefly resisted the rebels’ demands, citing a government-to-government agreement between the administrations in Juba and Kampala that necessitated the presence of the Ugandan troops in South Sudan.
