A group of soldiers defected from the South Sudanese army (SPLA) in Maban County of Upper Nile State on Sunday, resulting in clashes and looting in and around Bunj, the county capital.

A local source in Bunj told Radio Tamazuj that fighting started in the town at around 17:00 and continued till 18:00, when about seven defected Nuer soldiers trying to leave Maban clashed with a local militia called the Maban Defence Forces (MDF).

In this incident two were killed from the Nuer side and four from the Maban. There was also fighting at the military base, the casualties of which are not known.

Preliminary information also suggests more people were killed in the market and there was substantial looting.

Civilians fled from Bunj toward the nearby Doro refugee camp.

Radio Tamazuj received information that the National Refugee Commission in Maban evacuated two of their employees on Sunday morning.

The same source explained that when the fighting moved inside Bunj the MDF militia allegedly started targeting Nuer people inside the market, which was reportedly also bombed with heavy weapons and looted. 

File photo: SPLA fighter