Stranded Ethiopians seek help to flee South Sudan

By Parach Mach

JUBA, South Sudan (AA) - Thousands of Ethiopians stuck in South Sudan’s capital are pleading with their government to get them out of the country amid rising fears of a full-scale civil war.

Kenya, Uganda, the United States, United Kingdom and Norway have airlifted their nationals from the volatile capital amid claims that South Sudanese rivals could return to war after last month’s violence which sent armed opposition leader Riek Machar into hiding.

Tesfa Michael, an Ethiopian national in South Sudan told Anadolu Agency: "The Ethiopian government has abandoned us; we don't know what is wrong. Although the embassy promised to do something, they haven't gotten back to us until now,"

Michael said their efforts to seek assistance from their government and embassy had been fruitless: "The political attaché told us to wait since the fighting broke out. We fear for our lives now because we are hearing threats of attacks," he said.

Other Ethiopians told Anadolu Agency that expat associations were clubbing together to pay the air fare of those who could not afford to go home.

South Sudan has been consumed by conflict since Dec. 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused his former vice-president, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup. The fighting quickly tore the country apart along sectarian lines, pitting supporters of Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against those backing Machar, an ethnic Nuer.

Renewed fighting broke out earlier last month in Juba between ex-rebels loyal to Machar and those loyal to Kiir, leaving at least 300 dead.

The fighting came after two years of war which is estimated to have killed at tens of thousands of people and displaced a further 2.4 million. The conflict also pushed parts of South Sudan to the brink of famine and decimated an already-ruined economy.