At least 14 people have been killed in South Sudan after new fighting erupted between government forces and the main rebel group.

Lam Paul Gabriel Lam, the SPLM-IO rebel group's spokesman, told Reuters news agency on Saturday during the past two days the army has bombed rebel-held areas around Raga - a northwestern town near the border with Sudan and Central African Republic.

"Yesterday our forces decided to go and raid Raga," he said. "Around 14 people were counted killed but many are injured. We had one soldier killed with some injuries."

Santo Domic Chol, the government's military spokesman, said he was in Raga and would provide information later on.

The United Nations, which has a large peacekeeping force in the East African nation, confirmed the latest outbreak of violence.

"Fresh fighting has broken out between government and opposition forces in a number of locations including Raga in the west of South Sudan, Waat in Jonglei to the east, and in the area of Wunkur and Tonga in the northern Upper Nile region," the UN said in a statement.

Aid workers flee

The surge in fighting in eastern South Sudan has forced 60 aid workers to flee, hurting efforts to help desperate civilians in the famine-hit nation, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said on Saturday,.

Three UN World Food Programme workers were killed this week while trying to get to a supply warehouse amid fighting between rebel and government troops near the western city of Wau.

"There are no words left to explain the level of frustration and outrage I feel regarding the continued attacks against humanitarians in South Sudan who are simply trying to help the civilians suffering as a result of this conflict," said Eugene Owusu, OCHA coordinator, in a statement.

"Separately, 60 humanitarian workers have had to relocate from multiple locations in Jonglei yesterday and today - including Waat and Walgak - due to intensified conflict in the area."

The outbreak of violence in the eastern Jonglei region came after fierce clashes in southern Pajok and western Wau in the past two weeks.

According to a tally of UN figures and deaths that witnesses reported to AFP, 101 people were killed in the two towns.

OPINION: South Sudan not facing 'genocide', but violence is constant

The UN peacekeeping mission UNMISS, which has been blocked from accessing some conflict zones, said 13,500 people had fled to their base near Wau this week. More than 3,000 others were seeking refuge at a Catholic church compound.

Moustapha Soumare, the special representative for the UN secretary general in South Sudan, on Saturday called for a halt to fighting, urging "all parties to prove their commitment to peace".

"They must show restraint and demonstrate their responsibility to ensure the sanctity of life of all South Sudanese citizens," he said in a statement.

Oil-rich South Sudan has been riven by violence since 2013, when President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer.

The political showdown quickly split along ethnic lines and has drawn many tribes into a complex patchwork of conflict. </s> The Red Cross in Central African Republic says at least 115 people have been killed and more than 50 injured in several days of attacks in the southeastern town of Bangassou.

Local Red Cross official Antoine Mbao-Bogo said Wednesday that 37 bodies have been buried and funerals continue. Hundreds of militia fighters from a predominantly Christian group known as the anti-Balaka attacked the town and the United Nations peacekeeping base there over the weekend.

The U.N. mission says tensions have reached the northern town of Bria, where fighting Tuesday between mostly Muslim Seleka rebels and anti-Balaka has killed at least five and injured 29. Peacekeepers have intervened to separate the groups.

A series of attacks in remote areas this past week have forced more than 15,000 people from their homes. </s> TRIPOLI (Reuters) - At least 16 people died and 50 were wounded in Libya in four days of clashes between rival factions in the southern city of Sabha, a health official said on Sunday.

According to residents and local reports, the latest bout of violence erupted between two tribes after an incident in which a monkey that belonged to a shopkeeper from the Gaddadfa tribe attacked a group of schoolgirls who were passing by.

The monkey pulled off one of the girls’ head scarf, leading men from the Awlad Suleiman tribe to retaliate by killing three people from the Gaddadfa tribe as well as the monkey, according to a resident who spoke to Reuters.

City officials could not be reached to confirm the accounts.

“There was an escalation on the second and third days with the use of tanks, mortars and other heavy weapons,” the resident told Reuters by telephone, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the denigrating security situation.

“There are still sporadic clashes and life is completely shut down in the areas where there has been fighting.”

Like other parts of Libya, Sabha has been periodically plagued by conflict since the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi five years ago splintered the country into warring factions.

In the Sabha region, a hub for migrant and arms smuggling in Libya’s often neglected south, militia abuses and the deterioration of living conditions have been especially acute.

The Gaddadfa and the Awlad Suleiman represent the most powerful armed factions in the region.

During the latest clashes, which took place in the city center, initial attempts by tribal leaders to calm the fighting and arrange a ceasefire so that bodies could be recovered had failed, residents said.

By Sunday, Sabha Medical Centre had received the bodies of 16 people killed in the clashes and some 50 wounded, said a spokesman for the center.

“There are women and children among the wounded and some foreigners from sub-Saharan African countries among those killed due to indiscriminate shelling,” he said.

The city lies about 660km (410 miles) south of Tripoli. </s> A surge of fighting in eastern South Sudan has forced 60 aid workers to flee, the UN humanitarian agency said today, hurting efforts to help civilians in the famine-hit nation.

An increase in violence nationwide has seen thousands flee in the past two weeks, including more than 16,000 from the second-largest city of Wau -- above 10 percent of its population.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA warned that helping the needy was growing ever more dangerous after three people involved in delivering food aid were brutally killed in Wau this week.

"There are no words left to explain the level of frustration and outrage I feel regarding the continued attacks against humanitarians in South Sudan who are simply trying to help the civilians who are suffering as a result of this conflict," said OCHA coordinator Eugene Owusu in a statement.

"Separately, 60 humanitarian workers have had to relocate from multiple locations in Jonglei yesterday and today -- including Waat and Walgak -- due to intensified conflict in the area."

The outbreak of violence in the eastern Jonglei region comes after fierce clashes in southern Pajok and western Wau in the past two weeks.

According to a tally of UN figures and deaths that witnesses reported to AFP, 101 people were killed in the two towns.

The UN peacekeeping mission UNMISS, which has been blocked from accessing some conflict zones, said 13,500 people had fled to their base near Wau this week. More than 3,000 others were seeking refuge at a Catholic church compound.

UNMISS said fighting had also broken out in the western town of Raga and in the north-eastern Upper Nile region.

The special representative for the UN secretary general in South Sudan, Moustapha Soumare, on Saturday called for a halt to fighting, urging "all parties, to prove their commitment to peace".

"They must show restraint and demonstrate their responsibility to ensure the sanctity of life of all South Sudanese citizens," he said in a statement.

The three-year civil war in the world's youngest country has created a massive humanitarian crisis. Famine was declared in two regions in February, affecting 100,000 people. Up to five million need aid.

While President Salva Kiir vowed that the government would ensure "unimpeded access to needy populations across the country", March alone saw 79 incidents of humanitarians being blocked from doing their work, according to OCHA.
At least 16 people are killed amid fresh fighting in Raga, according to a SPLM-IO spokesperson. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that over 60 humanitarian aid workers were forced to flee.