It was a bloody fifth Independence anniversary celebration for South Sudan as at least 115 soldiers from different armed factions in the country have died after gun battles broke out across the capital Juba on the eve of the anniversary.
The fighting began on Friday outside the presidential compound as President Salva Kiir was meeting with first vice president and former rebel leader Riek Machar and soon spread through the city.
The clash comes almost a year after a peace agreement was signed. Over fifty thousand people were killed in the fighting and more than two million were forced to flee their homes.
Heavy fighting involving tanks and helicopters raged in South Sudan on Monday between troops loyal to the president and those backing the vice president, risking a return to civil war and further instability in a volatile and poor region of Africa, Reuters reports.
Clashes between the forces of President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar - the former rebel leader who became vice president under a deal that ended a two-year civil war - have killed hundreds of people since they broke out in the capital Juba four days ago.
The violence intensified on Monday; a Reuters witness saw two helicopters overhead firing in the direction of Machar's headquarters, while residents reported tanks on the street. A United Nations official said heavy gunfire had erupted around U.N. bases where hundreds of civilian have fled to shelter.
The fighting broke out last week as the world's newest nation prepared to mark five years of independence from Sudan at the weekend. The U.N. Security Council on Sunday demanded Kiir and Machar rein in their forces and end the clashes.
There has been no official death toll but at least five soldiers died on Thursday and a Health Ministry source said 272 people, including 33 civilians, were killed on Friday alone.
United Nations mission UNMISS said gunfire had erupted on Monday around the U.N. headquarters in the Jebel area of Juba and also around a base near the airport. U.N. bases were hit by small arms and heavy weapons on Sunday, when one U.N. Chinese peacekeeper was killed.
Kiir and Machar have long been rivals for power, both in politics and on the battlefield. The civil war that erupted in December 2013 came a few months after Kiir sacked Machar as deputy.
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