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Rebels sit in the now-emptied hospital in Malakal. AP Photo/Ilya Gridneff

UN: South Sudanese rebels broadcast calls to rape rival groups

More than 200 civilians were killed and 400 wounded in a recent attack.

REBEL GUNMEN IN South Sudan massacred “hundreds” of civilians in ethnic killings when they captured the oil town of Bentiu last week, the United Nations has said, one of the worst reported atrocities in the war-torn nation.

In the main mosque alone, “more than 200 civilians were reportedly killed and over 400 wounded,” the UN mission in the country said, adding there were also massacres at a church, hospital and an abandoned UN World Food Programme (WFP) compound.

Fighters took to the radio urging rival groups to be forced from the town and for men to rape women from the opposition ethnic group.

South Sudan’s army has been fighting rebels loyal to sacked vice president Riek Machar, who launched a renewed offensive this month targeting key oil fields.

The conflict has also taken on an ethnic dimension, pitting President Salva Kiir’s Dinka tribe against militia forces from Machar’s Nuer people.

Heavy battles

UN human rights investigators said that after rebels wrested Bentiu from government forces in heavy battles last Tuesday, the gunmen spent two days hunting down those they believed opposed them.

Both South Sudanese and Sudanese — some from the war-torn Darfur region — were killed, the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement.

“They (the rebels) searched a number of places where hundreds of South Sudanese and foreign civilians had taken refuge, and killed hundreds of the civilians after determining their ethnicity or nationality,” the UN said.

“Vengeful sexual violence”

Some rebels took to the local radio to “broadcast hate messages declaring that certain ethnic groups should not stay in Bentiu, and even calling on men from one community to commit vengeful sexual violence against women from another community,” the statement added.

South Sudan Eating Roots A South Sudanese family distributes cooking oil received from the World Food Programme (WFP) via air drop in Nyal, Unity State AP Photo / Ilya Gridneff AP Photo / Ilya Gridneff / Ilya Gridneff

Rebel spokesman Lul Ruai Koang, in a statement released shortly after the capture of the town, had praised the “gallant forces” of having completed “mopping and cleaning up operations in and around Bentiu”.

At the Kali-Ballee mosque, where hundreds had taken shelter, the rebels “separated individuals of certain nationalities and ethnic groups and escorted them to safety, while the others were killed,” the UN report said.

Children killed for hiding

At the hospital, “several Nuer men, women and children were killed for hiding and declining to join other Nuers who had gone out to cheer” the rebels as they entered the town, the UN said.

Peacekeepers later rescued over 500 civilians, many of them wounded, from the hospital and other sites, as well as guarding “thousands” of civilians as they walked to the UN base, where over 12,000 people are now crammed in for shelter.

Similar killings were reported at the Catholic church and WFP compound.

Peacekeepers have already said they had seen dozens of corpses in military uniform on the streets of the northern town, capital of Unity state.

Rebels say ‘mopping up’

The capture of Bentiu came two days before gunmen stormed a UN compound in which at least 58 people were killed, with peacekeepers fighting back to protect over 5,000 civilians sheltering there who the attackers had wanted to kill.

The UN Security Council said that attack may “constitute a war crime”.

The surge in fighting in the four-month-long conflict comes amid warnings by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that more than one million people are at risk of famine in the war-torn country.

A ceasefire deal in tatters, while peace talks in luxury hotels in Ethiopia have made little if any progress.

Bentiu is the first major settlement to have been retaken in a renewed offensive by Machar forces, with the rebels saying on Monday that fighting continued in Unity state and boasting of further villages they had captured.

They could not be contacted for comment on the reports of massacres.

The conflict in South Sudan, which only won independence from Sudan in 2011 and is the world’s youngest nation, has left thousands dead and forced around a million people to flee their homes.

© – AFP, 2014

Read: 58 killed, including women and children, in attack at UN base in South Sudan >

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    Mute Anthony Hilton
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    Aug 16th 2021, 3:40 PM

    When will people realise that the government don’t care about the people

    154
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    Mute Larsen Cib
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    Aug 16th 2021, 3:45 PM

    @Anthony Hilton: why not? Leonardo and Martin said thank you didnt they?
    Now you can store a big thank you in your fridge and pay for your transport to work.

    Just let them know that you are paying with the governments ” thank you “

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    Mute Colm OS
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    Aug 16th 2021, 4:52 PM

    Without doubt Healthcare workers deserve recognition and reward but it wasn’t just Healthcare workers who put themselves at risk. All the supermarket, pharmacy and non hse Healthcare staff (as a few examples) all took on risk which they deserve to be rewarded for

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    Mute Niamh Hughes
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    Aug 16th 2021, 11:57 PM

    @Colm OS: Dunnes stores employees got a 10% raise and a 20% discount card for their shopping. I stand to be corrected but I also think Tesco rewarded their employees too. Healthcare workers got a round of applause.

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    Mute John Fagan
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    Aug 16th 2021, 5:10 PM

    The problem with this is that if you give to one in the union, you have to give it to the lot of them. This includes managers who sat at home during the pandemic, administration staff who worked from home and people who just didn’t bother coming in because they didn’t want to catch covid. Plus the fact that every other public servant will want it. Who decides who deserves it?

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    Mute Niall Lee
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    Aug 16th 2021, 5:22 PM

    @John Fagan: every single one of them

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    Mute Garreth mc mahon
    Favourite Garreth mc mahon
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    Aug 16th 2021, 3:51 PM

    These unions need separation from influence of government, if they are unhappy, go to LRC or labour court for each law broken if any. The days of ministers showing up at conventions also need to stop. The unions have never helped to fix the issues and it’s amazing how many pay rises fix the issues in the HSE

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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
    Favourite GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 16th 2021, 3:40 PM

    The demand doesn’t seem to be very clear. Are the unions looking for compensation for all workers in the health sector, front line workers or what exactly? How many staff are they seeking compensation for? The HSE employees about 70,000 alone, throw in all the voluntary hospitals, care workers…. They must be able to put a number on it.

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    Mute Derek Moean
    Favourite Derek Moean
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    Aug 16th 2021, 4:10 PM

    Leo will give them around of applause…

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    Mute Ian Breathnach
    Favourite Ian Breathnach
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    Aug 16th 2021, 9:01 PM

    @Derek Moean: he’ll give them a pay rise, then claim he too is a Doctor and take said pay rise himself.

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    Mute Margaret Kane
    Favourite Margaret Kane
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    Aug 17th 2021, 12:34 PM

    TDs certainly don’t suffer hardships they’ve no problems robbing the taxpayers money to give themselves big rises

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