Hundreds of Israeli citizens are stuck in South Sudan following running gun battles between armed groups in Juba, the capital on Monday. Both the airport and border crossings are reported closed.
A UN spokesman said about 800 civilians had taken shelter in a UN compound near the airport. Speaking by telephone, he said seven people had been treated for gunshot wounds, including a two-year-old boy.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir declared a curfew in Juba Monday afternoon following the clashes between rival factions of soldiers, which began the on Sunday night followed months of tension between Kiir and his sacked deputy.
Kiir blamed soldiers loyal to Riek Machar, who was dismissed as vice-president in July, for starting the fighting in the capital that extended into Monday morning before easing.
The two men are from rival ethnic groups which have clashed in the past. Machar has said he wants to run for president.
Flanked by ministers and wearing combat fatigues rather than civilian clothes, Kiir declared an overnight curfew in Juba effective from Monday. It will run each night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. The President described the fighting as an "attempted coup.”
The government, he said, is in full control of the capital.
Kiir had dismissed Machar after mounting public criticism at the government's failure to deliver better public services in the oil-producing nation, which is the size of France but barely has any tarmac roads. Critics say the new nation suffers the same ills as old Sudan, namely rampant corruption, poor public services and repression of government opponents and media.
The government has struggled to establish a functioning state since declaring independence from Sudan in 2011 to become Africa's newest nation. While Jerusalem has come under fire for its policies regarding Sudanese migrants, Israel has good relations with Juba and was one of the first countries to recognize the new state.
There are currently “many hundreds” of Israelis in South Sudan, Israel’s non-resident Ambassador Haim Koren told The Jerusalem Post Monday evening, adding that the Foreign Ministry is “in contact with them.”
Koren declined to answer further questions.
The Ministry was unable to quantify exactly how many Israelis are currently in the country but Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson did say that Israel is “fairly active there.”
One Israeli trapped in Juba is Ophelie Namiech, the regional director for East and Central Africa for the humanitarian organization IsraAID, who assisted the nascent state in establishing its Ministry of Social Development last year.
While nighttime gunfire is “usual business in Juba,” Namiech wrote in an open letter, Sunday’s battles were “not the usual gun shots between isolated gang groups, but heavy artillery, that sounded like fireworks, going on all night.”
“From time to time, especially during the day time, we could hear people screaming,” she recalled. “It sounded like we were in the middle of a warzone. Immediately, we thought of a coup d’Etat, in a country where political tensions have been escalating for the past few months.”
Namiech is the only Israeli staffer from IsraAID left in Sudan, Shachar Zahavi, the group’s founder, told the Post.
“Usually we have six Israelis [there] but because of the coming holiday most went on vacation. IsraAID staff alongside other international aid agencies and UN personnel are currently closed behind walls and waiting for the fighting to ease before evacuating to neighboring countries.”
IsraAID is in touch with other Israelis in the country, he said, as well as with the local French and American embassies and Namiech will likely evacuate as soon as an exodus of foreigners is organized. However, he added, as soon as the situation on the ground stabilizes, his group return to Juba.
“We’re in the middle of a crisis,” Zahavi said.