Post date: Jan 16, 2014 1:13:18 AM
UN human rights official describes the situation in parts of South Sudan as "appalling", with corpses left on roadsides in the northern town of Bentiu after fighting between the army and rebels.
BENTIU, SOUTH SUDAN (JANUARY 15, 2014) (UNMISS) - On a mission to assess the human rights situation in South Sudan and the impact of recent fighting, a UN human rights official on Wednesday (January 15) spoke of the appalling situation in the northern town of Bentiu.
South Sudan's army said it regained the rebel-held northern town on Friday (January 11), giving the government control of a region where oil production had been halted by fighting that has left the world's youngest nation close to civil war.During his visit in Bentiu, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Simonovic, said that the UN is very concerned by civilians being targeted because of their ethnicity.
"The situation that I have seen in Bentiu is an illustration of the horrors of such a situation. We have seen two communities being successfully targeted by different forces having in common sufferings of innocent civilians," he said.
Four weeks of fighting, often along ethnic lines, has been ringing alarm bells over the prospect that the conflict could spiral into full-blown civil war, spawning atrocities or making South Sudan the world's next failed state.
Five days after the town was recaptured, Bentiu is a ghost town with a number of corpses left on roadsides.
"It was appalling to see corpses on the streets that were not removed five days after people were killed because of fear of their relatives," said Simonovic.
As the fighting continues, UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said that the first group of 25 Nepalese military reinforcement arrived in Juba from the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
The team, comprised of one officer and 24 soldiers, is an advance party of the 350-member Nepalese UN reinforcement battalion, which is expected to be in South Sudan by the end of the month. Another 500 troops coming directly from the Nepalcapital Kathmandu are also expected to join the team.
According to one estimate, the conflict that erupted in mid-December may have killed as many as 10,000 people, although there is no official toll for those killed in the desperately poor nation. The United Nations has said that well over 1,000 people have died.
Over 400,000 people have fled their homes because of the fighting in the world's youngest nation, the world body says.
The crisis erupted after South Sudan President Salva Kiir fired Machar and other ministers last year. Machar's rebels are demanding the release of 11 of their political allies jailed after they were accused of attempting a coup.
South Sudan split from Khartoum in 2011 as part of a 2005 U.S.-backed peace deal that ended decades of civil war.