The South Sudan Red Cross has approached authorities in Juba asking for land to carry out mass burials after five days of violence in Juba from Thursday night through Monday in which many soldiers and civilians were killed.

A medical source on Tuesday estimated the military death toll from both sides at 600, but few estimates have been made publicly yet as to the number of civilian dead. Bodies are still seen in the streets in some parts of Juba.

Red Cross spokesman Mariak Mayo Riek told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday that their workers and volunteers have collected the bodies were scattered around the roads and in Juba Teaching Hospital and the military hospital from the first clashes at J1 on Friday.

But some of the dead from clashes in the following days have not yet been collected. “Now there are some bodies on the roads and residential areas but our main problem currently is to find a burial ground which is hindering us from collecting the bodies. We don’t want to collect the bodies and take them to the hospital,” he said.

Mariak explained, “We are following this issue with the authorities and as we are talking now the secretary-general of South Sudan Red Cross Society is in a meeting with the Juba City mayor to provide us a land for burying the bodies.”

“We have four teams and volunteers are ready to go. One team will go to Tongpiny near Catholic University where there are some bodies. Another team will go to Munuki-Bilpam road, while another team will go to Gudele One and Rock City. The fourth team will go to checkpoint.”

The spokesman emphasized, “What is important is to bury the bodies because some people are complaining that the bodies are being eaten by dogs on the streets.”

Listen to this interview in Arabic on Soundcloud.