South Sudan massacre may mirror the horror of Rwanda
UN base overwhelmed with refugees
NAIROBI, KENYA — The townsfolk believed the mosque was safe. They crammed inside as rebel forces in South Sudan took control of the town from government troops. But it wasn’t safe. Robbers grabbed their cash and mobile phones. Then gunmen came and opened fire on everyone, young and old.
The UN says hundreds of civilians were killed in the massacre last week in Bentiu, the capital of South Sudan’s oilproducing Unity state, a tragic reflection of long- standing ethnic hostilities in the world’s newest country.
“Piles and piles” of bodies were left behind after the shootings, Toby Lanzer, the top UN aid official in South Sudan, said. Many were in the mosque. Others were in the hospital or on the streets. The violence appears to have been incited in part by calls on radio for revenge attacks, including rapes.
The attack targeted members of certain ethnic groups, a disturbing echo of what happened two decades ago in another country in eastern Africa. Rwanda is marking the 20th anniversary this month of a geno- cide that killed an estimated one million people and also saw orders to kill broadcast over the radio.
Thousands of people have been killed in violence in South Sudan since December, when presidential guards splintered and fought along ethnic lines. The violence later spread across the country as soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, tried to put down a rebellion led by Riek Machar, a former vice-president and an ethnic Nuer.
Lanzer said Tuesday the April 15-16 mass killings, carried out by Nuers, are “quite possibly a game-changer” in the conflict.
“It’s the first time we’re aware of that a local radio station was broadcasting hate messages encouraging people to engage in atrocities,” he said. “And that really accelerates South Sudan’s descent into an even more difficult situation from which it needs to extract itself.”
Lanzer said thousands of civilians from several ethnic groups are streaming to the UN peacekeeping base in Bentiu out of fear of more violence The base now holds 22,000 people — up from 4,500 at the start of April — but can supply only one litre of water per person each day. About 350 people must share one toilet.
“The risk of a public health crisis inside our base is enormous,” he said.
Raphael Gorgeu, the head of Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan, said people will die inside the UN base in the coming days because of the water and sanitation situation.
It is likely that ethnic Dinkas were among the dead. Even Nuers who refused to take part in the attacks were killed, according to the UN, as were former residents of the Darfur region of Sudan.
UN officials began helping to clear the bodies from the streets and buildings after the bloodshed. Lanzer arrived in Bentiu on the third day of that operation but still counted 150 bodies.
Gorgeu said his team members in Bentiu — including 12 international staff — have treated more than 200 people wounded in the violence, including many gunshot victims.
South Sudan is a landlocked country that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011 Because of the fighting, more than one million people have fled their homes, and few residents are tending crops. Lanzer said there was a severe risk of famine in the months ahead.