LEER – South Sudan’s government troops killed about 50 civilians by placing them in a shipping container in Leer county and applying heat to the metallic device in October last year, a report revealed.
The incident, according to the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), which oversees the country’s ceasefire, occurred in Unity state.
“About 50 people suffocated in a container on about 22 October. The investigation was protracted. Attribution of responsibility: Government Forces,” said JMEC’s report.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and over two million displaced since violence broke out in the world’s youngest nation following political wrangles in South Sudan’s ruling party (SPLM) in December 2013.
The JMEC report also accused both government troops and rebel forces of rape, murder and looting, allegations both parties have repeatedly denied.
ARMED OPPOSITION RESPONDS
James Yoach, a spokesperson for the armed opposition in Leer County welcomed the JMEC report, which he said confirm earlier claims that pro-government forces were commit crimes against civilians in the country.
He, however, claimed the number of those killed in the incident could be higher than what was officially disclosed in the JMEC’s latest report.
“We know these people were in hundreds of numbers,” he said by phone from Leer county.
In October, he added, 50 girls and women were abducted by government and 100 men were rounded up and taken to Leer town from nearby villages when militias allied to government attacked civilian hideouts.
SOURCE: Sudan Tribune
