South Sudan cease-fire off within hours

DUBLIN — South Sudan government troops violated the country’s latest cease-fire 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 a devastating five-year civil war that 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 neighboring Sudan after their first face-toface 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 7 a.m. Saturday, arriving in armored personnel carriers, trucks and Land Cruisers.

“The fight is still ongoing as I write,” Gabriel said, calling on the U.N. peacekeeping mission and cease-fire monitors to investigate. The opposition reserved the right to self-defense, he added.

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

South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told the AP that the opposition attacked instead.

“They have a loose leadership; they’re not being controlled by anyone. … It’s very sad,” Ateny said.