South Sudan’s airforce launched a massive air strike in the nation’s east, claiming around 19 lives, according to locals. This comes less than two weeks after the government forces pulled out from the region as a result of intense fighting with an ethnic outfit. 

The White Army, a loosely organised outfit primarily made up of armed ethnic Nuer youths, and government forces clashed in Nasir, close to the Ethiopian border. The fighting threatened to rekindle the civil war that raged from 2013 to 2018 and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The government has accused First Vice President Riek Machar's party, which represents the Nuer community, of working with the White Army. This group had previously fought alongside Machar's forces during the civil war against President Salva Kiir's predominantly ethnic Dinka troops. Machar's party has denied any involvement.

A South Sudanese general was among approximately 27 soldiers who died on March 7 when a U.N. helicopter attempting to evacuate them from Nasir was attacked. South Sudan's Information Minister, Michael Makuei, informed journalists during a news conference that the airforce carried out a bombing in Nasir on Monday morning. Kang Wan, a community leader in Nasir, reported that the incident occurred late on Sunday night. Of the 19 people who died, 15 were killed instantly, while the others later died from their injuries. Another resident mentioned seeing 16 bodies, with three more people dying afterwards. "All of them got burned, everything got burned," Wan told Reuters by telephone. Doctors Without Borders reported that its hospital in Ulang treated three patients from Nasir who were injured, arriving on Monday morning. 

"Two of them were declared dead on arrival due to the severe burns they had sustained," Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a statement, giving no further details. Nasir County Commissioner James Gatluak Lew, who supports Machar, suggested that South Sudan's armed forces were likely acting in retaliation for the recent helicopter attack. Meanwhile, Uganda announced last week that it had sent special forces to South Sudan's capital, Juba, to ensure security. However, the South Sudanese government denied the presence of Ugandan troops in the country. Nonetheless, Makuei said in a statement that some Ugandan army units were present "to back up and support the (national army) according to their needs."