Byen Bor, som er hovedstad i Jonglei- delstaten, har skiftet hænder flere gange i konfflikten, der brød ud for en måned siden og menes at have kostet tusinder af døde – FN rapporterer om grusomheder og overgreb fra begge parter.
The Ugandan army said it had helped in the operation, while a spokesman for the rebel forces said its troops had made a tactical withdrawal, BBC online writes Saturday.
Meanwhile, talks to try to find a ceasefire are continuing in Ethiopia.
The conflict between rebel and government forces broke out on 15 December. President Salva Kiir has accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup – an accusation he denies.
The dispute has seen killings along ethnic lines – Mr Kiir is a member of the Dinka community, the country’s largest, while Mr Machar is from the Nuer ethnic group.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting.
On Thursday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni confirmed his country’s troops were now fighting alongside South Sudanese government forces against the rebels. Some refugees have moved to the Ugandan town of Adjumani, 470 km north of the capital Kampala
South Sudanese army spokesman Philip Aguer said the fight had left Bor a “ghost town” and no longer important.
But Col Aguer said the victory had eliminated the psychological pressure of a rebel attack on the capital, Juba, 200 km south of Bor.
Col Aguer also said the focus would now fall on the town of Malakal, further north, which is still party controlled by the rebels, with the government forces planning an attack.
On Friday, UN Human Rights fact finder Ivan Simonovic said both government soldiers and rebels had committed atrocities.
He told the BBC there had been reports of “mass killings, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary (vilkårlig) detention, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, widespread destruction and looting (plyndring) of property and use of the children in conflict”.
Se også telegrammet
http://www.u-landsnyt.dk/nyhed/17-01-14/analyse-af-sydsudans-dybe-krise
