“Soldiers Killed Them All” says a Report on South Sudan

Makuar is 88 years, according to the account given to Amnesty International (AI). Lives in Bentiu, the capital of Unity State, in northwest South Sudan. On 10 January, nearly a month after the violence from taking over much of the country and due to the onslaught of government soldiers near his home, he chose to stay home. “I refused to go because I am old. Could not run,” he told Makuar a team of this organization in the field. “I thought that if the government would come good, but they were killing people,” says the octogenarian in one of the sections of the report Nowhere Safe: Civilians under Attack in South Sudan. “The soldiers would not let anyone escape and all were killed,” continues Makuar of the Nuer ethnic group, which includes many of the rebels against President Salva Kiir.

Amnesty not even dare to close a civilian death toll after collecting the testimonies of many of the fugitives, more than a million displaced by conflict in the cities of Juba, the capital, Malakal, Bentiu and Bor. What I can confirm is that violence continues. Kiir ‘s government said Wednesday it has suspended attacks on the rebels for a month. But if his troops are mugged respond.

Kiir is expected that, in the majority Dinka, like much of his cabinet and armed forces, see this week face to face with his opponent and leader of the rebels, the former vice president Riek Machar. That if successful dialogue between parties in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, said last week from Juba that the current president has pledged to launch an Executive Transition.

” We heard gunshots nearby and ran to a neighbor’s house,” recounts elsewhere in Chuol report, 40 and Mia neighbor of Saba, in Juba. “He’s a good friend and Dinka soldier ” continues this South Sudanese, who did not hesitate to hide his wife and five children. ” We saw two vans full of soldiers and heard shots by the house… When they left seven family members found murdered,” says Chuol. Some of them had been shot in the back of the neck. Most were struck in the head and upper body, according to this testimony.

But the most atrocious violence has not been limited to a couple of episodes in South Sudan. According to information received by AI, many victims at the hands of government forces have appeared mutilated. In the report the state in which the body of a pharmacist Nuer of Bentiu Yida found is described. Her her throat was slit, eyes uprooted and feet amputated.

Researchers at the human-rights organization also traveled to the town of Malakal in Upper Nile State, in the northeast. Between 13 and 14 January, 10 days before signing a cease-fire failed to dessert. Peter survived: “They were armed, in plain clothes and red bandanas after telling them we were Shilluk shot to kill. “. Peter was hit in the neck and left to die. One of his companions, Opedi Yor, died at the scene. This witness does not know what happened to the other two because they fainted, but believes also died.

Also in Malakal, the Amnesty report documents how rebel forces have been primed with patients in the hospital. ” Two rebels in uniform came to the hospital room,” Nyachan begins the narrative. “First, demanded money and then shot my son in the head. He was the only male in the room.” The organization likewise denounced the report that sexual violence perpetrated by both sides against women and girls, and many live without the company of men because of conflict – is widespread in a state in which the law has been wiped off the map.

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Posted by Nadeem Bajwa on May 9 2014. Filed under Africa, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.