Pretoria - The South African government has called on the people of South Sudan to remain committed and to provide continued support to the transitional government to ensure sustainable peace, stability and development.
On Thursday, violent clashes broke out between forces loyal to President Salva Kirr and First Vice President Riek Machar around the Presidential Palace in Juba and extended to neighbourhoods around and places near the airport.
The clash left more than 110 soldiers killed.
“These shooting incidences threaten to draw back the promising gains made through the compromised Peace Agreement and the recently formed Transitional Government of National Unity,” said President Jacob Zuma on Sunday.
President Zuma called on the two leaders, President Salva Kirr and First Vice President Riek Machar to provide the required leadership under these difficult circumstances.
The world's youngest country cancelled this year's independence celebrations due to the economic crunch resulting from more than two years of civil conflict.
It won independence on 9 July 2011 from Sudan after more than two decades of war that ended in a bitter divorce.
The country again plunged into conflict in December 2013 after President Kiir accused his deputy Machar of plotting a coup, which the later denied, leading to a cycle of retaliatory killings.
President Kiir and former rebel leader and now First Vice President Machar signed a peace deal in August that paved the way for the formation of the transitional unity government to end more than two years of civil conflict. – SAnews.gov.za
