Through a spokesperson, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced Tuesday that the United Nations will launch an independent special investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Terrain hotel incidents and to evaluate the U.N. mission’s overall response.
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“The peacekeepers did not venture out of the bases to protect civilians under imminent threat”, Human Rights Watch said Monday in a report on abuses throughout Juba.
Power concluded: “The parties to the conflict must immediately cease attacks against innocent civilians and recommit to settle the conflict and leave the South Sudanese to live in peace at last”.
After a war with Khartoum which lasted for over 20 years, South Sudan gained independence in 2011 before descending into a bloody civil war. Around 12,000 are now stationed in the country.
Compound attack: ‘Do you want to die?’
After about an hour and a half, the soldiers broke into the bathroom.
The soldier pointed his AK-47 at the female aid worker and gave her a choice.
“Where is the dollar?”
“We kill you! We kill you!” the soldiers shouted, according to a Western woman in the bathroom.
“We need to be engaged in a discourse and exchange ideas on what is the best way forward, rather than be presented with a fait accompli from outsiders”, Kiir said in the capital Juba.
Eventually the soldiers entered the bathroom where they were hiding.
“They took the girls out of the bathroom one by one”, she said.
The soldiers then pulled people out one by one.
“All of us were contacting whoever we could contact”, one woman, who said she was raped by 15 men, told the AP.
“The unnatural reality of one country and two armies coexisting side by side is dysfunctional and already proven to be disastrous as we witnessed during July’s tragic events”, he said.
“You foreigners you caused a problem here you’re the reason for this”. “For the South Sudanese authorities, there will be a concern that if worldwide aid workers are targeted for attacks, then many will leave taking the essential services and aid they provide with them”. He said the president’s forces “are on offensive against” Machar’s armed opposition and the rebel leader will return “once a third-party force is deployed”.
“It was pure hatred, it was merciless”, said Libot. Several other reports followed, but a quick reaction force was not mobilized by the U.N. Department of Safety and Security until 4:33 p.m. When they do, though, United Nations peacekeepers have another tradition: ignoring it, and the entire reason they’re in place.
“I’m really angry because nobody came”, said the woman who was raped by five different men.
The abuses now being probed by the United Nations – specifically, a July 11 attack on the Hotel Terrain in the capital Juba – took place during these days of fighting. In one example reported by media, on July 17 soldiers dragged a woman away. Internal U.N. investigation findings released in June found that peacekeepers made serious mistakes in the U.N. Protection of Civilians Site in Malakal, a city in northern South Sudan.
“South Sudan’s leaders must investigate this incident and hold accountable the individuals responsible for these cowardly and brutal assaults”.
The government of South Sudan denied any instruction to target foreigners. Some killings targeted certain South Sudanese due to their ethnicity, it said.
“The government takes every report seriously – if the crime is committed we will bring them to book”, they added.
South Sudan descended into civil war after Kiir dismissed Machar as his deputy.
The visit to Kenya – during which Deng met with President Uhuru Kenyatta – appeared created to shore up Deng’s position as the most senior Nuer in a so-called government of national unity established in a peace deal that has remained largely unimplemented since being signed by Machar and President Salva Kiir a year ago. Around 300 people were killed in those clashes.
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Gambella in Ethiopia hosts more than 270,000 South Sudanese refugees.
