South Sudan ramps up rhetoric against U.N. as hopes for peace fade

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http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-south-sudan-united-nations-20140122,0,6202955.story



A South Sudanese woman waits with a child at a makeshift shelter in the Sudanese border town of Joda after fleeing the violence in her country.

South Sudan ramps up rhetoric against U.N. as hopes for peace fade
By Robyn Dixon
January 22, 2014, 2:12 p.m.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Days after South Sudan's president accused the United Nations of acting like a "parallel government" in the world's newest country, another official said Wednesday that the country was "at war" with the U.N.

The inflammatory rhetoric has raised fears that the violence that broke out in South Sudan last month could drag on.

South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011. But two years later, the country is spiraling into war after a power struggle in the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement escalated.

The movement -- and the army -- split between supporters of President Salva Kiir and his rival, Riek Machar, triggering ethnic violence across the country that has killed as many as 10,000 people, according to the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.