Three Indian peacekeepers killed in South Sudan

Three Indian peacekeepers have been killed in an attack on a United Nations base in South Sudan, and concerns are rising that heavy fighting between government troops and rebels is pushing the world’s youngest state into civil war.

India’s UN Ambassador Asoke Mukerji said the three were “targeted and killed” on Thursday by the rebels in an attack on a base at Akobo in Jonglei state.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the fate of some 30 ethnic Dinka civilians taking shelter at the UN base was not clear yet.

“We have received reports of people killed and injured and are in the process of verifying,” said UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson.

Meanwhile, 40 other UN peacekeepers and six UN police advisors at the camp were transferred to safety.

The fighting between troops loyal to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, who is from the Dinka ethnic group, and opposition leader Riek Machar, a Nuer, erupted around the capital Juba on Sunday night.

The violence, which has claimed hundreds of lives and is spreading to other parts of the country, has alarmed South Sudan’s African neighbors.

Meanwhile, a team of mediators sent by the African Union held talks with Kiir to work out a ceasefire as rival factions fought fierce gun battles over Bor, north of Juba.

“The African Union is until now meeting with the president,” presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said. “Their message is that they are trying to broker peace between the two forces.”

Ateny said Bor was in the hands of Machar’s forces. “Bor has surrendered actually because the forces that were in Bor were mainly loyal to Machar,” he said. “They control the town, but government forces are trying to retake the town.”

On Wednesday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said there are signs that the conflict in South Sudan is spreading.

“I am deeply concerned about the current situation in South Sudan. I spoke to President Salva Kiir yesterday morning urging him to do everything possible he can to end the violence and to ensure a respect for human rights and the rule of law. I also impressed on him the need to resume dialogue with the political opposition,” Ban said.

“This is a political crisis and urgently needs to be dealt with through political dialogue,” he added. “There is a risk of this violence spreading to other states (in South Sudan) as we have already seen some signs of this.”

The South Sudanese president accused his archrival and former deputy, Machar, of attempting to topple his government, but he said the coup attempt had been foiled.

The government said on Tuesday that ten senior political figures were arrested after the alleged coup attempt.

Machar has denied Kiir’s accusation that he had led a coup attempt.

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.