LATEST: UN Rights experts fear intense fighting in South Sudan as “the nation is crumbling” Nov. 30 Featured, Uncategorized 2 comments
By AFP, WEDNESDAY, NOV/30/2016, SSN; UN human rights experts on a fact-finding mission to South Sudan warned Wednesday, November 30, 2016, of an escalation in ethnic violence in the war-torn country. “Many expect intensified fighting now that the dry season is setting in,” said Yasmin Sooka of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. Sooka was speaking to the press in the capital Juba at the end of a 10-day visit during which the three-member team spoke with civilians in the battleground towns of Bentiu, Malakal and Wau, as well as government officials and members of civil society. “There are unprecedented levels of violence and ethnic tension all over South Sudan,” Sooka said. “Any sense of national identity is crumbling and tribal or ethnic identity is taking over. I repeatedly heard of the desire for revenge,” she added. South Sudan’s current conflict began nearly three years ago when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy and political rival, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup. Since then the world’s newest nation has fractured along ethnic lines in a civil war characterised by atrocities. Sooka said government and rebel armies were both forcibly recruiting soldiers — including children — and warned that “renewed recruitment is an indicator that all the parties are preparing for the next conflict”. The UN rights experts repeated calls for an arms embargo, sanctions, the deployment of another 4,000 peacekeepers and the establishment of a special war crimes court. The US on Wednesday also warned of escalating violence. “We have credible information that the South Sudanese government is currently targeting civilians in Central Equatoria and preparing for large scale attacks in the coming days or weeks,” Keith Harper, the US representative at the UN Human Rights Council, said in Geneva. “In the last two weeks, the government has mobilised at least 4,000 militia from other areas of South Sudan and is staging these fighters in Equatoria to begin conducting attacks,” Harper said. Earlier this month the UN’s Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, told the Security Council there was a risk of “outright ethnic war” and the “potential for genocide”. The UN rights experts are expected to publish a report of their findings in March. END << Older 2 Comments gatdarwich December 1, 2016 at 12:07 am Dear Patriots in Easter Equatoria, Don’t be alarmed or panic for 4000 of killer nyankiir’s militants won’t and shall never be allowed to commit genocide or bully civilians in that area because General John Jok Gai of SPLA-IO is fully in charge of making sure that the traitorous and coward Jenges are totally cremated to perfection there full stop Reply mading December 1, 2016 at 8:17 pm Gatdarwich. Which patriots are you talking about ? Are you talking about the ones under UN cared in DRC ? -- To post to this group, send email to southsudankob@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to southsudankob+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to southsudankob+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to SouthSudanKob@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14opnpjZ2BXhNPRd7PoV1s4RBUJudqzYZdW%2B_sn8vx%2BYoBA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.