South Sudan government retakes flashpoint Nasir town

JUBA: South Sudanese government forces have retaken the town of Nasir which had been a flashpoint in a deepening political crisis, an army spokesman said on Sunday.

Clashes around Nasir in the northeastern Upper Nile State have helped unravel a power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Vice-President Riek Machar.

The violence has threatened to plunge South Sudan, which became the world´s youngest country after gaining independence in 2011, back into civil war.

Kiir´s allies accuse Machar´s forces of fomenting unrest in Nasir in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of armed youths from Machar´s Nuer ethnic community.