South Sudan's former vice president and opposition leader Riek Machar has left the country for a neighbouring state, opposition officials said, weeks after he withdrew from the capital during fierce fighting with government troops.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir fired six ministers allied to his long-time rival Riek Machar late on Tuesday, widening a political rift in the world's newest nation and drawing threats of more fighting.
A South Sudanese minister and opposition figure resigned on Monday saying a peace deal designed to heal the troubled young nation was dead, while calling for President Salva Kiir's unity government to leave power.
A heavily-armed Ugandan military convoy crossed into South Sudan on Thursday to evacuate citizens trapped in the capital Juba as fears persist that recent days of intense fighting might reignite despite a ceasefire.
A fragile ceasefire appeared to be holding in South Sudan's capital Juba after four days of gun battles that have left hundreds of people dead and sent nearly 40,000 fleeing.
Heavy fighting erupted in South Sudan's capital on Sunday as former rebels and government soldiers exchanged fire two days after gun battles left around 150 fighters dead.
At least 115 soldiers from South Sudan's rival factions were killed in gunbattles in the capital Juba, a military spokesman for the opposition said on Saturday, amid fears for a fragile peace process in a country still reeling from a two-year war.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has named his arch-rival Riek Machar as vice-president, raising hopes for the implementation of a repeatedly broken peace deal to end more than two years of civil war.
