South Sudan: Rebels killed hundreds of civilians on ethnic basis, says UN
Rebels slaughtered hundreds of civilians when they seized the South Sudan oil hub of Bentiu, hunting down men, women and children who had sought refuge in a hospital, mosque and Catholic church, the United Nations said yesterday.
Rebel troops overran Bentiu, the capital of the oil producing Unity State, on Tuesday. More than one million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted in December between troops backing President Salva Kiir and soldiers loyal to his sacked vice-president, Riek Machar. The fighting has exacerbated ethnic tensions between Mr Kiir’s Dinka people and Mr Machar’s Nuer.
The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan said its human rights investigators confirmed that rebels “searched a number of places where hundreds of South Sudanese and foreign civilians had taken refuge and killed hundreds of the civilians after determining their ethnicity or nationality”.