Fighters loyal to the opposition SPLM/A faction led by Riek Machar have crossed the Nile into the west bank territory of Upper Nile State, causing further mass displacement toward the north.

Speaking from Fashoda today, a local government official Gabriel Jago Nyawela told Radio Tamazuj, “The Nuer crossed the Nile to the west bank and attacked us in our territory.”

Areas lying opposite Malakal in western Upper Nile are defended by mixed elements of SPLA who retreated from Malakal and forces loyal to the ex-rebel commander Johnson Ulony, who was wounded last week fighting alongside government troops for control of the state capital.

“Two days ago the rebels attacked toward Lelo, the rebels reached up to Ganal in order to attack Lelo, and then they stole cattle of the people,” explained Nyawela.

“They stole 35,000 head of cattle. The government doesn’t have any cattle. Those cattle were belonging to civilians,” he added.

Opposition gains on the west bank were confirmed by the United Nations, according to remarks made at a briefing in New York on Thursday by Martin Nesirsky, spokesman of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,

“The UN Mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, says it has received multiple reports that Opposition forces are in control of Owatchi in Panyikang County and Lelo in Malakal County, in Upper Nile State,” he said.

Nyawela, who is commissioner of Panyikang County, fled that area along with thousands of other citizens. He explained that citizens of the county were displaced in two directions, with those of Tonja payam and Panyikang payam heading west, while those of Pakwa, Doleib Hill, Biar and Owachi went toward Fashoda.

He claimed that currently there are 123,000 displaced people in Fashoda County, coming mainly from Panyikang County and Malakal.

“No aid organization came here up till now,” he said. “The role of the organizations should be to help us, because this is a disaster.”

“We would like the organizations to lend a hand, and the World Food Programme, they should help the citizens, because they have lost their grain and the rebels also burnt the stores. Because now the problem is not between the government and the rebels, it’s between the rebels and the citizens,” affirmed the commissioner.

Photo: A satellite photograph of Wau Shilluk, a settlement on the west bank of the Nile north of Malakal, 17 February 2014 (UNOSAT)