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South Sudan Ceasefire Crumbles As Battles Rage In Oil-State

South Sudan Ceasefire Crumbles As Battles Rage In Oil-State

Juba (AFP) – Forces in South Sudan on Thursday fought fierce battles and traded blame for breaking a ceasefire as the civil war entered its sixth month amid warnings of famine if bloodshed continues.

Both sides reported heavy fighting in the key oil-producing state of Upper Nile, which now pumps almost all of South Sudan’s crude after intense battles shut down most fields in the other main area of Unity state.

Both army spokesman Philip Aguer and his rebel counterpart Lul Ruai Koang reported heavy artillery barrages and fierce gun battles at Dolieb Hill, south of Upper Nile’s war-ravaged state capital Malakal, and in the northern Renk district.

“We will continue to strictly abide by the peace agreement, but we will not allow this ceasefire to be used by rebels to continue moving and attacking our positions,” Aguer said.

Rebel spokesman Koang charged that government troops Thursday carried out “relentless and intensive shelling” of their positions at Dolieb.

He claimed government troops had fired shells as rebels gathered for a morning military parade to listen to ceasefire “agreement messages being read out to them by their respective field commanders.”

Continued fighting comes as aid agencies warned Thursday the young nation faces a catastrophic “tipping point” amid famine and genocide warnings, and as health officials reported the first death from a much-feared cholera outbreak.

“We either act now or millions will pay the price,” Oxfam chief executive Mark Goldring said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had begun dropping food by costly air drops, the first time it had done so since Afghanistan in 1997.

The war in the world’s youngest nation has claimed thousands — possibly tens of thousands — of lives, with more than 1.3 million people forced to flee their homes.

In the Renk district, a strategic region just north of the main Palouch oil field still left pumping, the rebels said government troops were “continuously attacking.”

Aguer said it had been the guerrillas who had attacked.

President Salva Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar signed a fresh ceasefire last week but fighting broke out hours later, the second time a truce has failed to stick.

The ceasefire agreement, signed Friday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, was the fruit of weeks of mounting international pressure and shuttle diplomacy.

But fighters on the ground appear to have paid little if any notice to it.

The United States on Wednesday called for an immediate deployment of African troops from regional nations to safeguard the ceasefire, with Washington seeking a U.N. resolution to ensure the force is in place as “quickly as possible,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs.

Thomas-Greenfield warned of possible dire consequences should the shaky peace deal fall apart.

“There is a famine that is looming if this fighting does not stop,” she said.

U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay, a former head of the U.N. genocide court for Rwanda, has said she recognized “many of the precursors of genocide” listed in a report on atrocities released last week by the organisation.

The war erupted on December 15 when Kiir accused Machar of attempting a coup. Machar then fled to the bush to launch a rebellion, insisting that the president had attempted to carry out a bloody purge of his rivals.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this week warned half of the country’s population will suffer if war continues.

“If the conflict continues, half of South Sudan’s 12 million people will either be displaced internally, refugees abroad, starving or dead by the year’s end,” Ban said.

©afp.com / Samir Bol

NTSB Begins Inquiry Of Fiery Crude Oil Train Derailment In Virginia

NTSB Begins Inquiry Of Fiery Crude Oil Train Derailment In Virginia

By Paresh Dave, Los Angeles Times

A 105-car train stocked with Bakken shale crude oil was traveling slower than the 25-mph speed limit when 13 tankers near the front tumbled off a Virginia railroad track, causing a fire whose heat could be felt high atop neighboring skyscrapers, an official said Thursday afternoon.

Jim Southworth, a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said investigators began surveying the wreckage overnight after the Wednesday afternoon derailment in downtown Lynchburg.

Environmental authorities were also at the scene, trying to assess how much crude oil had spilled into the James River, which runs alongside the tracks. Three cars slipped into the river as the rain-soaked earth beneath them collapsed.

Southworth said the role of rain in the derailment is something investigators would consider.

“We’ll open every door, and we’ll close every door,” he said at a televised news conference.

Rain may have also been a factor in a derailment Thursday of a freight train hauling coal through Maryland and in a landslide that covered a freight track elsewhere in the state. The Baltimore Sun reported that no one was injured in the derailment of three locomotives and 10 storage cars, though some coal did spill.

In Virginia, the CSX Transportation train was being pulled by two locomotives at the front end, Southworth said. Thirteen tankers between cars No. 35 and No. 50 derailed. Some of the tankers on the train were DOT-111s, he said. That class of rail car has come under scrutiny for being too brittle as transportation authorities try to stem a recent uptick in accidents involving crude-oil tanker trains. Each tanker can hold up to 30,000 gallons of oil.

The derailments and fires have coincided with a twenty-five-fold surge in oil shipments by rail in the last several years.

The string of accidents began with the horrific fire triggered by the derailment of a runaway train in Lac-Megantic, Canada, last summer, in which 47 residents died and much of the downtown was destroyed. Other major accidents followed in Alabama, Alberta and North Dakota, along with minor ones in other states.

The safety concerns have triggered emergency rules by the Federal Railroad Administration, a move toward new safety standards for tank cars and a voluntary agreement with the railroad industry to reduce speeds and avoid sensitive urban corridors. The Virginia incident, which prompted a wide evacuation, might be the most serious one in an urban area.

Wednesday’s derailment involved a train that was taking oil from the Bakken shale fields in North Dakota to Yorktown, Va., CSX said.

Unaffected rail cars were removed overnight, the rail company said. It was also coordinating with local and federal environmental authorities to see how much oil and other debris fell into the river. Pictures taken by environmentalists and state officials showed blobs of oil a few miles downstream, and water officials in another city had stopped taking in water from the James River as a precaution.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality told the Los Angeles Times that results were pending from water sample tests.

“We have not seen any environmental harm at this point, e.g., no fish kills or effects on other aquatic life,” agency spokesman Bill Hayden said in an email. “We are continuing to monitor the river for signs of any problems.”

The NTSB said the investigation into the cause of the incident could take weeks.

“These types of incidents happen very quickly, but they take quite a bit of time to go through,” Southworth said.

Michael Hicks via Flickr.com