Summary:
"We have pursued the rebels from around Bentiu up to Leer," South Sudan army spokesperson Philip Aguer said.
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Juba - South Sudan's army is advancing on a key rebel enclave, a spokesperson said on Monday, as UN and aid agencies warned fighting had cut hundreds of thousands of civilians off from "life-saving aid".
The government assault that began late April is one of the heaviest offensives in the 17-month long civil war and has cut off over 650 000 from aid, with gunmen raping, torching towns and looting relief supplies, according to the UN and aid agencies.
Government forces have been pushing south from the government-held town of Bentiu, state capital of Unity state, towards the opposition zone around the town of Leer.
"We have pursued the rebels from around Bentiu up to Leer," South Sudan army spokesperson Philip Aguer said.
It was not immediately clear if fighting had reached the town itself, but the UN warned of the devastating impact of the fighting, in both Unity and Upper Nile, where rebels attacked the state capital Malakal on Friday.
"UN agencies and their partners are working to address the immense humanitarian consequences of the violence, which has resulted in more than 650 000 civilians being left without life-saving aid," UN aid chief in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said in a statement.
Fighting broke out in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings across the country.
Leer, the birthplace of Machar, was ransacked by government forces in January 2014, with gunmen looting and torching the hospital there run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
MSF has since rebuilt the hospital, the only referral facility in opposition areas.
"Military operations in Unity and Upper Nile states over the past three days in particular have again devastated countless lives," Lanzer said.
"Eyewitness accounts report targeted rape and killing of civilians, including children. The offensive in Unity has left thousands of homes burnt and Leer hospital is again under threat of destruction."
At the same time, the army said it was still battling for control of Malakal, gateway to the country's last remaining major oil fields, after a pro-government general holding sway in the area swapped sides to join the rebels, taking his tribal militia with him.
South Sudan officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in northeastern Africa that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011.
Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city. It is planned that the capital city will be changed to the more centrally located Ramciel in the future.
South Sudan is bordered by the Republic of the Sudan to the north, Ethiopia to the east, Kenya to the southeast, Uganda to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and the Central African Republic to the west.
It includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile and known locally as the Bahr al Jabal.
The territories of modern South Sudan and the Republic of the Sudan were occupied by Egypt under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, and later governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium until Sudanese independence was achieved in 1956.
Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. Later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed.
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