Heavy gunfire has erupted overnight in South Sudan’s capital Juba, witnesses and embassies report.


Witnesses said the fighting started overnight in the city.

“It was sporadic gunfire. But then at 6 a.m. this morning it intensified and you could hear explosions,” said a local resident.

The US and British embassies in Juba also reported ongoing security incidents and sporadic gunfire in multiple locations across Juba.

The UN mission in Juba said its staff was under lockdown and that the shooting was continuous.

The firing appeared to be focused around military barracks in the city.

In October, in a gun attack in South Sudan’s eastern state of Jonglei, at least 41 people were killed and more than 60 others were injured. The attackers were armed with automatic weapons and stole thousands of cattle.

In May, in a battle between South Sudan’s military and militants in Jonglei, 24 people, including 20 militants and four government troops, were killed and the army recaptured the town of Boma, near the border with Ethiopia, from the militants who had seized the town earlier this month.

In July 2011, South Sudan voted to break away from Sudan following a two-decade civil war that killed about two million people in the East African country. However, the new oil-rich nation, which is one of the least-developed countries in the world, has had to confront ethnic tensions and rebellions of its own.