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Attack on U.S. Aircraft Foils Evacuation in South Sudan
Michael R. Gordon --- December 21, 2013 --- New York Times
WASHINGTON — United States aircraft flying into a heavily contested region of South Sudan to evacuate American citizens were attacked on Saturday and forced to turn back without completing the mission, American officials said. Four service members were wounded, one seriously.
South Sudanese officials said the attack had been carried out by rebel forces.
The aborted mission to Bor, the capital of Jonglei State, was the first American military incursion into rebel-held territory in the country. Previous evacuation flights had been organized in Juba, the capital.
President Obama said on Thursday that he had sent 45 American service members to South Sudan to “support the security of U.S. personnel and our embassy.”
The Obama administration has not said how many Americans are trapped in Bor, whether they are in imminent danger or what options Mr. Obama is considering to evacuate them.
Some 14,000 civilians are reported to have sought refuge at a United Nations base in Bor. It is surrounded by 2,000 armed youths, spurring fears that the base may be overrun and the lives of aid workers threatened.
Armed youths seized a United Nations base in another town, Akobo, last week, killing at least 13 people, including two United Nations peacekeepers.
On Saturday, the American military sent three CV-22 Ospreys — tilt-rotor aircraft that can fly like an airplane and land like a helicopter — to Bor to evacuate American citizens from the United Nations compound. As the aircraft approached the town, “they were fired on by small-arms fire by unknown forces,” the military said in a statement. All three aircraft were damaged.
The mission was aborted and the Ospreys flew about 500 miles to Entebbe, Uganda. The service member who was seriously wounded was taken to Nairobi, Kenya, where he was said to be in surgery on Saturday evening. Three others had minor injuries, American officials said.
As attacks have racked South Sudan, there has been mounting concern about the safety of 35,000 civilians who have sought sanctuary at United Nations peacekeeping bases in the country.
“The situation in Bor is very dire,” said Catherine Howard, the deputy head of the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs office. “Humanitarians are unable to operate safely. People have been uprooted. There is looting.”
Mr. Obama met with his top security officials on Saturday morning in Hawaii, where he is on vacation with his family. The White House said he was briefed on the status of the wounded troops, and on the safety of American citizens in Bor and embassy personnel in Juba.
The White House said that Mr. Obama “reaffirmed the importance” of working with the United Nations to secure American citizens in Bor, and that South Sudan’s leaders had “a responsibility to support our efforts to secure American personnel and citizens in Juba and Bor.”
On Friday night, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States’ main focus was on seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
“Now is the time for South Sudan’s leaders to rein in armed groups under their control, immediately cease attacks on civilians and end the chain of retributive violence between different ethnic and political groups,” Mr. Kerry said in a statement. “The violence must stop, the dialogue must intensify.”
To encourage such efforts, Donald E. Booth, the United States’ special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, left for the region on Friday.
A Pentagon official said that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was reviewing additional options presented by Gen. David M. Rodriguez, the head of the United States Africa Command, to support the humanitarian mission in South Sudan. He did not provide details.
Bor is in an especially violent region that is no longer controlled by government forces, according to Col. Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the South Sudan military.
President Salva Kiir, a member of the Dinka ethnic group, has attributed the violence to an attempted coup by former Vice President Riek Machar, who is a member of the rival Nuer ethnic group.
The United States and some European nations have organized flights to evacuate their citizens from the capital.
But thousands of civilians remain at risk, as do United Nations peacekeepers. In the attack in Akobo, 2,000 Nuer youths took over the base, killing Dinka civilians and two Indian peacekeepers who tried to protect the civilians.
The United Nations peacekeeping force includes about 6,800 soldiers and 700 police officers.
Analysts and aid officials warned that the fighting could represent the beginning of a very dangerous ethnic conflict in South Sudan, which was born after one of the late 20th century’s bloodiest wars.
“Day by day we are moving closer to a civil war,” said Casie Copeland, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, a research and advocacy institution. “We are seeing reports of horrific ethnic violence.”
Conditions inside the United Nations base in Bor are deteriorating, Ms. Copeland said, and the South Sudanese civilians and foreign aid workers taking shelter there are in grave danger.
“We have the U.N. in very tenuous positions, protecting large number of civilians with a very small number of troops,” she said.
Troops from neighboring Uganda and Kenya have started to arrive in South Sudan, ostensibly to help protect civilians and restore order. But in a region where civil wars easily become regional conflicts, analysts expressed worry that the addition of foreign troops to the mix, particularly if they take sides, could make things worse.
Isma’il Kushkush contributed reporting from Khartoum, Sudan.
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Michael R. Gordon --- December 21, 2013 --- New York Times
WASHINGTON — United States aircraft flying into a heavily contested region of South Sudan to evacuate American citizens were attacked on Saturday and forced to turn back without completing the mission, American officials said. Four service members were wounded, one seriously.
South Sudanese officials said the attack had been carried out by rebel forces.
The aborted mission to Bor, the capital of Jonglei State, was the first American military incursion into rebel-held territory in the country. Previous evacuation flights had been organized in Juba, the capital.
President Obama said on Thursday that he had sent 45 American service members to South Sudan to “support the security of U.S. personnel and our embassy.”
The Obama administration has not said how many Americans are trapped in Bor, whether they are in imminent danger or what options Mr. Obama is considering to evacuate them.
Some 14,000 civilians are reported to have sought refuge at a United Nations base in Bor. It is surrounded by 2,000 armed youths, spurring fears that the base may be overrun and the lives of aid workers threatened.
Armed youths seized a United Nations base in another town, Akobo, last week, killing at least 13 people, including two United Nations peacekeepers.
On Saturday, the American military sent three CV-22 Ospreys — tilt-rotor aircraft that can fly like an airplane and land like a helicopter — to Bor to evacuate American citizens from the United Nations compound. As the aircraft approached the town, “they were fired on by small-arms fire by unknown forces,” the military said in a statement. All three aircraft were damaged.
The mission was aborted and the Ospreys flew about 500 miles to Entebbe, Uganda. The service member who was seriously wounded was taken to Nairobi, Kenya, where he was said to be in surgery on Saturday evening. Three others had minor injuries, American officials said.
As attacks have racked South Sudan, there has been mounting concern about the safety of 35,000 civilians who have sought sanctuary at United Nations peacekeeping bases in the country.
“The situation in Bor is very dire,” said Catherine Howard, the deputy head of the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs office. “Humanitarians are unable to operate safely. People have been uprooted. There is looting.”
Mr. Obama met with his top security officials on Saturday morning in Hawaii, where he is on vacation with his family. The White House said he was briefed on the status of the wounded troops, and on the safety of American citizens in Bor and embassy personnel in Juba.
The White House said that Mr. Obama “reaffirmed the importance” of working with the United Nations to secure American citizens in Bor, and that South Sudan’s leaders had “a responsibility to support our efforts to secure American personnel and citizens in Juba and Bor.”
On Friday night, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States’ main focus was on seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
“Now is the time for South Sudan’s leaders to rein in armed groups under their control, immediately cease attacks on civilians and end the chain of retributive violence between different ethnic and political groups,” Mr. Kerry said in a statement. “The violence must stop, the dialogue must intensify.”
To encourage such efforts, Donald E. Booth, the United States’ special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, left for the region on Friday.
A Pentagon official said that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was reviewing additional options presented by Gen. David M. Rodriguez, the head of the United States Africa Command, to support the humanitarian mission in South Sudan. He did not provide details.
Bor is in an especially violent region that is no longer controlled by government forces, according to Col. Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the South Sudan military.
President Salva Kiir, a member of the Dinka ethnic group, has attributed the violence to an attempted coup by former Vice President Riek Machar, who is a member of the rival Nuer ethnic group.
The United States and some European nations have organized flights to evacuate their citizens from the capital.
But thousands of civilians remain at risk, as do United Nations peacekeepers. In the attack in Akobo, 2,000 Nuer youths took over the base, killing Dinka civilians and two Indian peacekeepers who tried to protect the civilians.
The United Nations peacekeeping force includes about 6,800 soldiers and 700 police officers.
Analysts and aid officials warned that the fighting could represent the beginning of a very dangerous ethnic conflict in South Sudan, which was born after one of the late 20th century’s bloodiest wars.
“Day by day we are moving closer to a civil war,” said Casie Copeland, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, a research and advocacy institution. “We are seeing reports of horrific ethnic violence.”
Conditions inside the United Nations base in Bor are deteriorating, Ms. Copeland said, and the South Sudanese civilians and foreign aid workers taking shelter there are in grave danger.
“We have the U.N. in very tenuous positions, protecting large number of civilians with a very small number of troops,” she said.
Troops from neighboring Uganda and Kenya have started to arrive in South Sudan, ostensibly to help protect civilians and restore order. But in a region where civil wars easily become regional conflicts, analysts expressed worry that the addition of foreign troops to the mix, particularly if they take sides, could make things worse.
Isma’il Kushkush contributed reporting from Khartoum, Sudan.
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