South Sudan’s latest ‘permanent’ ceasefire is violated within hours

South Sudan government troops violated the country’s latest ceasefire just hours after it began at midnight, the armed opposition claimed Saturday, while a government spokesman accused the rebels of attacking instead.

The competing claims indicated a shaky start to the latest attempt at ending the country’s devastating five-year civil war, which has killed tens of thousands and created Africa’s largest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Millions are near famine and aid delivery is often blocked in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for humanitarian workers.

President Salva Kiir and rival Riek Machar, Kiir’s former deputy, had agreed on the “permanent” ceasefire earlier in the week in neighbouring Sudan after their first face-to-face talks in nearly two years. They then ordered their supporters to observe it.

Opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said government forces and Sudanese rebel militias launched a “heavy joint attack” in Mboro, Wau County in the northwest around 7am. Saturday, arriving in armoured personnel carriers, trucks and Land Cruisers.

“The fight is still ongoing as I write,” Gabriel said, calling on the UN peacekeeping mission and ceasefire monitors to investigate. The opposition reserved the right to self-defence, he added.

“This is disappointing that even when their president and commander-in-chief Salva Kiir declares a ceasefire, the regime’s forces still violate it,” Gabriel told Associated Press. “There is the possibility Salva Kiir is not in control of his forces or he doesn’t want peace to come.”