The United Nations says death toll from the fighting between South Sudanese government forces and rebels is significantly higher than the 1,000 given so far.


UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the UN Security Council on Thursday that no latest figures on a death toll were available, but added that it was "very substantially" higher than the 1,000 deaths the UN reported immediately after the fighting began last month.

He stated that the ethnic conflict has so far displaced more than a quarter million people in the world’s youngest nation.

Ladsous went on to say that the UN blames both sides of the conflict for attacks on civilians and not cooperating with either side.

The political crisis in South Sudan began after President Salva Kiir accused his former vice president Riek Machar of attempting a coup. The fighting between troops loyal to Kiir, who is from the Dinka ethnic group, and opposition leader Machar, a Nuer, erupted around the capital Juba on December 15, 2013.

The International Crisis Group said on Thursday that about 10,000 people have been killed in the violence.

“Given the intensity of fighting in over 30 different locations in the past three weeks, we are looking at a death toll approaching 10,000,” said Casie Copeland, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Meanwhile, South Sudanese army spokesman Philip Aguer said on Thursday that government troops were battling to retake Bentiu, the capital of Unity state, from the rebels, raising fears that fighting between rival army factions will push the country into civil war.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the outcome of the battle for Bentiu was unclear.

"Explosions and fighting have been reportedly heard in the town this morning," Haq said.

Bentiu is one of South Sudan's main oil-producing areas and one of two northern towns captured by the rebels.

On Wednesday, South Sudanese warring factions failed in their peace talks in Ethiopia following the government’s rejection of rebels’ calls to free prisoners accused of spearheading the alleged coup attempt.

Rebel sources said there will be no imminent truce in the country unless the government frees a group of jailed politicians.

But President Kiir has rejected the condition, saying the prisoners will be released after the case goes through the country's judicial system.

South Sudan gained independence in July 2011 after its people overwhelmingly voted in a referendum for a split from the North.

The government in Juba is grappling with rampant corruption, unrest and conflict in the deeply impoverished but oil-rich nation, left devastated by decades of war.