She was then raped by 15 South Sudanese soldiers during the rampage last month through a residential compound, popular with foreigners, in the capital, …
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The soldier pointed his AK-47 at the female aid worker and gave her a choice.
The latest allegations about United Nations failings emerged on Monday in a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report which said peacekeepers did nothing as women were raped, civilians murdered and foreign aid workers targeted during a flareup last month in which hundreds were killed in Juba.
The U.N. peacekeeping force stationed less than a mile away refused to respond to desperate calls for help. Soldiers at the gate looked at his USA passport and handed it back, with instructions.
The Associated Press interviewed eight survivors, revealing that three of them were raped and five were wounded. “We saw where they shot the local journalist and then they began to separate women into the various rooms”.
The deployment, which has been opposed by Kiir’s government, would bring the total number of United Nations peacekeeping forces in South Sudan to almost 17,000.
But army spokesman Lul Ruai told Reuters in Juba that 19 men had been detained in the capital on charges of murder, random shooting, looting and other crimes.
She says it is time for the US government to rethink its approach to South Sudan – and at least push harder for an worldwide arms embargo on a country. “It was just so loud and I couldn’t hear and I think I kind of lost my wits at that point”. The violence quickly spread across the city. A Terrain staffer from Uganda said he saw between 80 and 100 men pour into the compound after breaking open the gate with gunshots and tire irons. “Why, after two years of documenting these kind of incidents, would we be surprised that they would do it to Americans, to Westerners, to aid workers?” she says. They fired bullets at his feet and close to his head. Eventually, he was told to leave. The U.N.is investigating the claims.
Meanwhile, soldiers were breaking into a two-story apartment block in the Terrain which had been deemed a safe house because of a heavy metal door guarding the apartments upstairs. “The U.N., the USA embassy, contacting the specific battalions in the U.N., contacting specific departments”, said one woman who was raped by as many as 15 men. “You messed up this country”. The tribal scars on his forehead made it obvious he was Nuer, the same as opposition leader, Riek Machar.
A man from the Philippines said the soldiers definitely had hatred for America, recalling one soldier saying: “You messed up this country”.
She said government sent “a response force to the site” after being contacted by the U.S. embassy in Juba. “The U.N., the USA embassy, contacting the specific battalions in the U.N., contacting specific departments”. The timeline shows other appeals for help. One witness who requested help from several different United Nations battalions said all refused to intervene.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had uncovered evidence of cold-blooded execution of civilians, including a journalist, by security forces during last month’s fighting.
The State Department added that it was especially reprehensible that the perpetrators appear to have targeted those who came to South Sudan despite risks to their own personal safety to help the country and its people – thereby depriving the South Sudanese people of urgently needed assistance and compounding this man-made humanitarian crisis. The rest were rescued the next morning by a private security force.
United Nations peacekeepers control South Sudanese women and children before the distribution of emergency food supplies.
Power also blasted the 12,000 strong UN Mission in South Sudan for failing to respond when informed of attacks on the humanitarian compound.
State Department Press Director Elizabeth Trudeau would not say whether the attackers specifically assaulted Americans due to their nationality, telling reporters during the department’s press briefing Monday that she “is not in a position to say any particular nationality was singled out”.
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A peace deal signed between the government and rebels nearly a year ago has so far failed to end the conflict and last month, Juba was rocked by several days of heavy fighting between Kiir’s forces and those loyal to Machar.
