South Sudan is working with the United Nations to ensure that South Sudanese citizens are evacuated from Syria if fighting between government forces and rebels in the Middle East country continues to intensify, officials said Friday.

"We will be working together with the UN to make sure our citizens are evacuated," Mawien Makol Arik, a spokesman for South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

"We are in contact with them to work together with the UN to try to see whether it would be possible for the UN also to work with the embassy in Cairo to see the evacuation of our citizens if things get worse."

The number of South Sudanese nationals in Syria is estimated to be in the hundreds, although exact numbers are unavailable.