JOHANNESBURG – Four South Sudanese government soldiers have been killed and two members of the armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) have been wounded following renewed clashes outside the capital, Juba, AP reports.

Tuesday’s clashes followed an attack on a rebel position in Wunu’Lyet, 10 kilometres from the capital, by government forces in two military vehicles.

This is the latest clash between the two sides, violating a 24 December ceasefire established in the hope of ending the five-year civil war.

Opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said the attack was a clear indication that incumbent President Salva Kiir had no intention of respecting December’s ceasefire.

However, army spokesman Lual Ruai Koang claimed he wasn&39;t aware of any new fighting.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in South Sudan’s civil war, hundreds of thousands displaced to refugee camps in neighbouring Uganda, and elsewhere, while many facing hunger in Africa’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

Despite the ongoing conflict, another round of high-level peace talks is scheduled for February.