Hundreds of civilians killed in Unity and Jonglei states: UN
January 8, 2015 (JUBA) – Hundreds of civilians were killed when South Sudan’s armed opposition forces retook control of the Unity state capital in April last year, a new United Nations report says.
Speaking at Thursday’s launch of the report, the head of the UN mission in the country, Ellen Margrethe Loej strongly condemned the violence in Unity and Jonglei states.
“UNMISS strongly condemns the continued killing and displacement of civilians on the basis of their ethnic identity nearly nine months after the events of April 2014,” said Loej.
“This risks an even greater polarisation of the country along ethnic lines with potentially serious repercussions for the state of human rights and the prospects for reconciliation,” she stressed.
Loej, also the special representative of the UN secretary general, further urged the two warring parties to end the violence and undertake comprehensive and credible investigations into alleged violations in order to hold perpetrators to account.
The 33-page report, the UN said, was based on the collection and analysis of physical evidence and interviews with 142 sources, concluding there are reasonable grounds to believe at least 353 civilians were murdered and another 250 wounded in both attacks.
For instance, the report reportedly found that in both Bentiu and Bor, victims were deliberately targeted on the basis of their ethnicity, nationality or perceived support for one of the parties to the conflict.
According to the report, at least 287 civilians were killed at a mosque in the Kalibalek area of Bentiu by opposition forces after they regained control of the Unity State capital on the morning of 15 April.
Many of them, it says, were Sudanese traders and their families who were targeted on the basis of their Darfuri origins. At least 19 civilians were reportedly killed at Bentiu Civil Hospital in April.
However, almost nine months after the attacks took place, no perpetrator has been held accountable by either South Sudanese government or its armed opposition leadership, says the new report.
“On the morning of 17 April, a mob of mostly men between the ages of 20 and 40 marched to the UNMISS compound outside Bor to demand the expulsion of youths of Nuer ethnicity from the Mission’s protection-of-civilians site. The mob forcibly entered the protection site and went on a rampage of killing, looting and abductions of internally displaced persons (IDPs). At least 47 IDPs died in the attack, and their names appear in the report,” it stated.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the attack was planned in advance”.
As part of its recommendations, however, the UN human right report further called on all parties to the South Sudan crisis to immediately end all fighting, halt abuses and gross violations of human rights and respect the inviolability of United Nations personnel and premises.
Neither the government nor armed opposition has officially reacted to the UN report.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and nearly two million displaced since violence erupted in the country over a year ago. To-date, over 100,000 civilians still live within the UN protection camps amidst fears of renewed military clashes.
(ST).