UN says (353) civilians killed in South Sudan in April

Jan 09, 2015-Khartoum-SudaneseOnline-UN rights investigators announced on Friday that rebels in South Sudan slaughtered at least 353 civilians in April last year, including people sheltering in a mosque, hospital and a United Nations base
The report is the first detailed account of two incidents that have highlighted a pattern of gross abuses and atrocities committed during the year-old civil war in the world's youngest nation.
The UN also noted that nearly nine months after the events, "no perpetrator has been held accountable" for the killings, which it said "may amount to war crimes."
In the April 15 attack on the northern oil-town of Bentiu, fighters backing South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar murdered at least 287 civilians sheltering in a mosque, many of them traders and their families from neighboring Sudan's Darfur region.
"They lined up about 20 Darfurian, who were tied with their clothing... and told them to run to save their lives," the report said. "When they ran, soldiers shot at them outside of the gate."
Fighters also took to the radio urging rival groups to be forced from the town and for men to rape women from the rival tribe.
"Victims were deliberately targeted on the basis of their ethnicity, nationality or perceived support for one of the parties to the conflict," the UN said in a 33-page report.
Two days later on April 17, in the eastern town of Bor, a gang of heavily-armed men marched on the UN base, where hundreds of civilians had fled to for protection.
The "mob forcibly entered the protection site and went on a rampage of killing, looting and abductions", the report by the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said, adding the assault left at least 47 dead -- including 11 children, one just eight months old -- and was likely to have been "planned in advance".
The attack on Bentiu and the UN base in Bor are two of the most high profile massacres in a long list of atrocities carried out in the more than a year-long civil war.

Arabic Forum