<p>At least 300 people have been killed in four days of intense gunbattles in the capital of South Sudan and 42,000 have fled the city, the UN said today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The recent violence in Juba echoed the fighting that triggered the civil war and marks a fresh blow to last year's peace deal to end the bitter conflict that began when President Salva Kiir accused ex-rebel and now Vice President Riek Machar of plotting a coup.<br /><br />"It's over 300 deaths since August 8," said World Health Organisation spokesman Tarik Jasarevic. The UN however said it did not have the number of injured.<br /><br />The July 8-11 violence had left "42,000 internally displaced" in the world's youngest nation, said William Spindler, the spokesman for the UN refugee agency.<br /><br />"The number of refugees in neigbouring countries is now 835,000," he said.<br />However, the International Organisation for Migration said many people were returning.<br />"Humanitarian access to affected people has improved dramatically since Monday. But this can only be sustained if the ceasefire holds", said John McCue, IOM South Sudan Head of Operations.<br /><br />Machar's sacking as vice-president in 2013 set off a cycle of retaliatory killings that split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines and drove more than two million out of their homes.<br /><br />The conflict has been characterised by horrific rights abuses, including gang rapes, the wholesale burning of villages and cannibalism.<br /><br />According to the UN, there were some 114,000 South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries before December 2013 but that figure has ballooned to 835,000 now. <br /></p>
<p>At least 300 people have been killed in four days of intense gunbattles in the capital of South Sudan and 42,000 have fled the city, the UN said today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The recent violence in Juba echoed the fighting that triggered the civil war and marks a fresh blow to last year's peace deal to end the bitter conflict that began when President Salva Kiir accused ex-rebel and now Vice President Riek Machar of plotting a coup.<br /><br />"It's over 300 deaths since August 8," said World Health Organisation spokesman Tarik Jasarevic. The UN however said it did not have the number of injured.<br /><br />The July 8-11 violence had left "42,000 internally displaced" in the world's youngest nation, said William Spindler, the spokesman for the UN refugee agency.<br /><br />"The number of refugees in neigbouring countries is now 835,000," he said.<br />However, the International Organisation for Migration said many people were returning.<br />"Humanitarian access to affected people has improved dramatically since Monday. But this can only be sustained if the ceasefire holds", said John McCue, IOM South Sudan Head of Operations.<br /><br />Machar's sacking as vice-president in 2013 set off a cycle of retaliatory killings that split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines and drove more than two million out of their homes.<br /><br />The conflict has been characterised by horrific rights abuses, including gang rapes, the wholesale burning of villages and cannibalism.<br /><br />According to the UN, there were some 114,000 South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries before December 2013 but that figure has ballooned to 835,000 now. <br /></p>