US sends troops to South Sudan to protect Americans

NAIROBI, Kenya — The U.S. military in Africa said Wednesday it has sent 40 additional soldiers to South Sudan’s capital, Juba, to help secure American personnel and facilities in the war-torn city, while South Sudanese trying to flee the country by road reported attacks, killings and robberies by armed men.

In five days of fighting in the capital, President Salva Kiir’s forces ousted those loyal to First Vice President Riek Machar, the former rebel leader in the country’s recent civil war, from one of their bases.

Commercial flights to Juba remained canceled, though charter flights were evacuating hundreds of aid workers and other foreign citizens.

Some tried to reach neighboring Uganda by road, but a reporter spoke to people who had been wounded in attacks by armed men as they tried to flee.