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Peacekeepers, Civilians Killed in Attack on South Sudan UN Base

by VOA News December 20, 2013

The United Nations said Friday that two peacekeepers and 20 South Sudanese civilians were killed in an attack on a U.N. base in Jonglei state, as a delegation of high-ranking African officials held talks with President Salva Kiir to try to end the violence in the young country.

The peacekeepers, both from India, were killed in an attack by around 2,000 ethnic Nuer youths on a U.N. base in Akobo, in the east of Jonglei state.

The civilians who died in the attack were among a small group of ethnic Dinka who had sought shelter at the base as violence that began in Juba on Sunday spread outside the capital.

Kiir, a Dinka, has blamed the violence on a failed coup, which he said was organized by former vice president Riek Machar, a member of the Nuer ethnic group.

Officials have been trying to quell rising ethnic tensions, and Machar has denied that he had anything to do with the unrest, which has claimed at least 500 lives in the capital alone.

​​​​The United Nations said some 35,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have sought refuge at U.N. compounds in Juba, Bor and Bentiu since the start of the violence.

"South Sudan will face a large displacement and protection crisis if the situation is not managed with restraint or if political dialogue does not take place," the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs, Chaloka Beyani, warned.

The United States has deployed 45 Marines to Juba to provide additional security at the embassy.

VOA White House correspondent Dan Robinson said the deployment was 'standard procedure in these types of situations in terms of securing Americans in these areas.'

The troops will remain in South Sudan until the security situation has improved, he said.

In Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, residents said an unknown number of people were killed in fighting on Thursday.

The bodies of the dead were still lying in the streets because there was no one there to dispose of them after Red Cross officials 'had to run for their lives' in the midst of the fighting, government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth said.

Residents said shops and houses in Bor were looted and destroyed and thousands of people fled into the bush or to the U.N. compound, fearing for their lives.

In Unity state, four people including two high-ranking SPLA officers were killed when armed men attacked the SPLA barracks there on Thursday, officials said.

SPLA Division Commander James Koang Chuol said fighting at the barracks lasted for three hours and sparked panic in the nearby towns of Bentiu and Rubknotna. The army was in control in the state, he added.

In Juba, a delegation of ministers from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) held talks with President Salva Kiir, aimed at ending the violence.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is leading the IGAD delegation, called the meeting with Kiir 'productive' and said more talks are planned, although he did not say when they might be held.

Government spokesman Makuei said the government is committed to ending the violence.

"We have given the green light to this team to continue with their efforts in order to bring peace to South Sudan. However, the most important is to see how best we can stop all these atrocities that are being committed, especially in Jonglei state,' he said.