Ugandan troops crosses into South Sudan to evacuate citizens

Uganda: Uganda has began evacuating its citizens from inside neighboring South Sudan on Thursday after intense fighting erupted from the youngest country in the world last week. A heavily armed Ugandan troops and tanks cross the border into South Sudan a day after the United nations
warned of possible fresh fighting in Juba despite a two day ceasefire after fighting between forces loyal to the president and forces loyal to his rival, threw the country into crisis which has left more than 300 people dead.

South Sudan has been rocked by crisis since its independence five years ago after the President accused his Vice President Riek Machar of plotting a coup to unseat him.

According to the Ugandan army chief Brigadier Leopold Kyanda,

"We plan to go to Juba to extract 3,000 Ugandans stranded by fighting, but that number may grow as we will evacuate anyone who wants to leave of any nationality,"

"There may even be some South Sudanese who want to leave."

"Juba is totally peaceful and calm now and we do not expect any problems. The problems could be on the road where there are some few thugs. The first responsibility of any UPDF soldier is to protect himself and we are confident in this," Kyanda said.

Kyanda said that the mission would probably last "two to three days".