Page 11 - Aruba Today
P. 11
WORLD NEWS A11
Thursday 29 October 2015
AU report cites cannibalism, atrocities in South Sudan
JASON PATINKIN In this Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014 file photo, rebel soldiers patrol and protect civilians from the Nuer described how govern-
Associated Press ethnic group as the civilians walk through flooded areas to reach a makeshift camp for the dis- ment troops took part in
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — placed situated in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) base in the town of Bentiu, killings, abductions, disap-
Investigators discovered South Sudan. pearances, rapes, beat-
atrocities by all sides in ings and stealing.
South Sudan’s civil war, in- Associated Press The report said that Minister
cluding testimony of forced of Defense Kuol Manyang
cannibalism and the dis- conflict began Dec. 15, human flesh, witnesses told “evidence that some of Juuk described a shad-
covery of mass graves, ac- 2013, when a skirmish broke investigators. the people who had been owy group called “Rescue
cording to a long-awaited out between Dinka and The killings were “an orga- gathered were compelled the President” that killed
report by the African Union. Nuer soldiers in the presi- nized military operation to eat human flesh, while people in Juba on Dec.
The report, released late dential guard following po- that could not have been others were forced to drink 15-18 and “was even more
Tuesday, also accused the litical tension between Kiir successful without con- human blood belonging powerful than organized
forces loyal to President Sal- and Machar, his onetime certed efforts from various to a victim who had been forces.”
va Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, of deputy who had been fired actors in the military and slaughtered and his blood
recruiting an irregular tribal the previous July. government circles,” the collected on a plate,” it The group was made up
force before the outbreak report said. “Roadblocks said. of Dinka soldiers who had
of civil war in December Hundreds of Nuer men or checkpoints were estab- One witness said “she saw been mobilized following
2013. were rounded up and shot, lished all around Juba and SPLA (South Sudan army) a 2012 border crisis with
and their mass graves were house-to-house searches soldiers burning dead bod- northern neighbor Sudan.
It also disputes a claim by discovered, according to were undertaken by secu- ies and compelling Nuer Some of these soldiers
the government that there the report. Perpetrators — rity forces. During this op- women to eat burnt flesh were moved south to Kiir’s
was a coup attempt at described as government eration male Nuers were of burnt victims,” the report private farm near Juba in
that time by former Vice forces or their allies — alleg- targeted, identified, killed added. 2013 and later participat-
President Riek Machar, an edly tortured their victims, on the spot or gathered in In addition to testimony ed in the killings, the report
ethnic Nuer. sometimes forcing them to one place and killed.” about forced cannibalism, said, citing interviews with
The report alleged that jump into bonfires or eat The investigators found the report said witnesses informants.
government troops car- Amid the Juba killings,
ried out organized killings Machar fled the capital
of ethnic Nuer in Juba, the and mobilized an insur-
capital. When the violence gency which committed
began, Machar became a revenge attacks against
rebel leader. the Dinka, sparking a cycle
Tens of thousands of peo- of violence in the towns of
ple have died and over 2 Bor, Malakal, and Bentiu,
million more are displaced which also included rapes
by warfare in South Sudan, and killings in churches and
according to the United hospitals, according to the
Nations, which blamed the report.
violence and the subse- Those revenge attacks
quent threat of famine on occurred so quickly they
the young country’s feud- probably were were also
ing leaders. coordinated, it added.
The African Union investi- Kiir and Machar signed
gators, led by former Ni- a peace agreement
gerian President Olusegun in August but fighting
Obasanjo, found that the continues.q
