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It is not clear what triggered the fighting although sections of the border have long been contested.
At least four members of the South Sudanese security forces have been killed in fighting with the Ugandan army near the countries’ shared border, according to local officials, as tensions flare over disputed border demarcations.
Three South Sudanese soldiers were shot dead on Monday by Ugandan forces who retaliated after one of their soldiers was killed, Major General Felix Kulayigye, spokesperson for the Ugandan military, said on Wednesday. But Wani Jackson Mule, a local official in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state, said he received the bodies of five soldiers.
Uganda has a history of involvement in South Sudan and has long provided military support to President Salva Kiir, including a deployment of special forces since March.
A spokesman for South Sudan’s military, Major General Lul Ruai Koang, said on Wednesday that military leaders from South Sudan and Uganda have agreed to an immediate ceasefire to enable an investigation of the latest border clash.
A statement from local authorities quoted local South Sudan army commander Henry Buri as saying the Ugandan forces “were heavily armed with tanks and artilleries” and targeted 19 “joint operation” forces. There was no comment from the Ugandan government.
An earlier statement by local county officials said there had been “loss of lives and injuries from both sides”.
It was not clear what triggered the fighting on Monday that South Sudan says occurred in Central Equatoria.
The clashes reportedly occurred in a remote part of northwestern Uganda known as West Nile when South Sudanese soldiers crossed into Ugandan territory, set up camp and refused to leave, according to Kulayigye. “We had to apply force.”
But there are opposing narratives.
Mule described the firefight as a “surprise attack” by Ugandan forces in territory South Sudan considers to lie within its land. Sections of the Uganda-South Sudan border have been contested for years.
Leaders from the two countries have set up a joint border demarcation committee whose work is ongoing, Kulayigye said. Officials from both countries have previously said they expect to reach a firm decision in 2027.
Although there have been sporadic border clashes over the years, an exchange of fire between the military allies is rare.
Uganda sent troops to support Kiir when civil war broke out in South Sudan in 2013, two years after it gained independence from Sudan.
The civil war between Kiir and his longtime rival Riek Machar lasted five years and killed about 400,000 people before a power-sharing agreement was reached in 2018.
Uganda again deployed special forces in March this year as Kiir moved once again against Machar, eventually placing him under house arrest and stoking fears of a renewed civil war.
That has all but buried the power-sharing deal and triggered conflict between the army and members of a militia from Machar’s Nuer ethnic community.
The Ugandan army has been accused of using chemical weapons, namely barrel bombs containing a flammable liquid that has killed civilians, against Nuer militias in South Sudan’s northeast – accusations Uganda has denied.
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