The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said that South Sudan is passing through a “dangerous” phase, with an increasing pace of killings that threaten the fragile peace agreement. This comes a day after Western powers accused groups linked to the army of committing a massacre.
The Minister of Information in Jonglei State, Nyamar Ngundeng, stated that at least 16 people were killed last Saturday by “rebel elements of the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces” in the state located in the east of the country.
The government denied that soldiers intentionally targeted any civilians, but acknowledged that they may have fallen in the crossfire within the conflict-torn region on the border with Ethiopia.
A 2018 peace agreement ended a five-year civil war between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to First Vice President Riek Machar, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 400,000 people in the world’s youngest nation.
Clashes over land and other rivalries have recurred since then, and the country was plunged into political unrest after Machar was suspended from his duties last year and accused, along with 20 others, of participating in raids launched by militias in the northeast. They all denied those accusations.
Turk said that the killing of 189 civilians was documented during last January, with a 45 percent increase in human rights violations and assaults compared to the previous month.
He added before members of the UN Human Rights Council, “We are at a dangerous stage, as the escalation of violence is accompanied by worsening uncertainty regarding South Sudan’s political path, in light of the intense pressure the peace agreement is facing.”
Referring to the violence that took place last Saturday in Jonglei, Turk provided a higher estimate for the number of dead. He said witnesses described how soldiers ordered civilians to gather and then fired upon them, resulting in the deaths of 21 unarmed people, including children.
He said, “It appears that military discipline has collapsed among both government and opposition forces in Jonglei and Eastern Equatoria, and the forces have shown an almost total disregard for the protection of civilians.”
Turk added that government forces, opposition forces, and allied militias also attacked residential areas within the states of Upper Nile, Unity, Central Equatoria, Western Bahr el Ghazal, Western Equatoria, and Warrap.
In a joint statement published late yesterday, the United States, the European Union, Britain, and other Western countries expressed “shock at the credible reports of a deliberate massacre of civilians” within the village of Pankur in Jonglei.
In response to this statement, South Sudan government spokesperson Ateny Wek said the army did not kill civilians.
Wek added, “Unless these civilians were caught in the crossfire, no member of the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces has any intention of killing any civilian.”
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