The U.N. Security Council has said peacekeepers from China and Rwanda have been killed or injured in the escalating violence in the South Sudanese capital of Juba. China’s defense ministry said one Chinese soldier has been killed and six others were wounded in the attacks.

The U.N. condemned in the strongest terms all attacks and provocations against civilians and U.N. personnel. A spokesperson for South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar said the country is “back to war.”

The fighting began late Thursday between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those aligned with Vice President Riek Machar. Both men are calling for calm.

"We are calling on all the population, all South Sudanese, whether armed or not armed, to respect the ceasefire,” Machar said.

"We have to continue finding a solution to it. And I will still—although everybody will be resting tomorrow—I will still call my colleagues tomorrow so that we sit and finish what we did not complete before,” Kiir said.

But the two factions have struggled to work together and neither appears to have control over their forces. On Friday bodyguards for the President and Vice President exchanged gunfire outside the Presidential Palace while the two men were meeting inside.

And on Saturday reporters in the palace were forced to take cover as fighting again erupted outside the gates.

The conflict between the two sides dates back to the civil war that began in 2013. Vice President Machar fled the country but returned in April to form a unity government with Kiir.

In a statement the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the President and Vice President “Do everything in their power to de-escalate the hostilities immediately and to order their respective forces to disengage and withdraw to their bases. This senseless violence is unacceptable.”

Meantime the government is urging civilians to stay off the streets.

"I call upon all our citizens not to panic, but to go back to their homes. Those who had vacated their homes should go back to their homes so that they stay there,” said Michael Makuei Lueth South Sudan information minister.

A Chinese peacekeeping battalion was deployed in the capital Juba to protect U.N. staff and local civilians. The Chinese troops are conducting surveillance patrols in high risk areas and guarding refugee camps. The Chinese-led battalion along with Indian troops have moved several thousand civilians to safety.