UN documents atrocities committed by South Sudan army in Unity state
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June 30, 2015 (JUBA) – United Nations (UN) investigations uncovered
“disturbing” killing of civilians, rapes and abduction in South
Sudan’s oil-rich Unity state between April and June, according to a
statement released on Tuesday.
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it found “evidence of
widespread human rights abuses allegedly committed” by government
troops and allied militias.
“UNMISS staff members interviewed 115 victims and eyewitnesses from
the Unity state counties of Rubkona, Guit, Koch, Leer and Mayom where
the SPLA launched a major offensive against armed opposition (rebels)
forces starting in late April 2015,” the world body said in a
statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday.
The survivors of these attacks reported that SPLA and allied militias
from both Warrap state, home to president Salva Kiir and Mayom county
of Bul-Nuer, a clan from the Nuer ethnic group, carried out a campaign
against the local other ethnic Nuer populations that killed civilians,
looted and destroyed villages and displaced over 100,000 people.
The report by UNMISS Human Right Division, dubbed as “atrocities
committed in Greater Upper Nile Region” covers the period from April
to June 2015. This is one of many similar human rights abuses
committed since South Sudan conflict started in December 2013.
Fighters from the government of president Kiir and those of his former
deputy, Riek Machar, have been alleged to have killed civilians on
ethnicity and burnt villages.
UNMISS said the latest findings discovered “some of the most
disturbing allegations compiled by UNMISS human rights in which women
and young girls were raped and then burnt to death inside huts by the
joint government troops and militia forces from Warrap and Mayom
county.
“[UNMISS] officers focused on the abduction and sexual abuse of women
and girls, some of whom were reportedly burnt alive in their
dwellings,” the report further lamented.
“This recent upsurge [in fighting] has not only been marked by
allegations of killing, rape, abduction, looting, arson and
displacement, but by a new brutality and intensity,” UNMISS added.
UNMISS said that efforts by its staffs to visit sites of the alleged
atrocities was denied though Sudan Tribune could not independently
verify this. South Sudanese government also declined to comment on the
report insisting that there was nothing “new in the latest accusations
against the army,” according to officials at the ministry of foreign
affairs.
SPLA spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, did not return several phone calls
on Tuesday to comment on this story.
Ellen Margrethe Loej, the head of UNMISS, urged the government to end
the cycle of violence against civilians and hold perpetrators
accountable.
“We call on the SPLA to fulfil this commitment and allow our human
rights officers unfettered access to the sites of these reported
violations,” she said.
The eighteen months old conflict started within the ruling SPLM party
in Juba over reforms and leadership issues which turned violent on 15
December 2013 between president Kiir and his former deputy, Machar,
the now leader of the armed opposition.
Efforts by regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on
Development (IGAD), to end the war amicably has not succeeded. IGAD
has rescheduled a new phase for the talks in July.
(ST)
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1 July 08:52, by dinkdong
SPLA is full of indiscipline soldiers. Those arrogance sons of
b!t©he§ from Bahr El Ghazal were likely to be the ones that committed
those atrocities.
repondre message
1 July 12:35, by Thondet Manyang
I mention this before that let this UN be ready to record
unforgetable movies. So,don’t worry!!!
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