Human Rights Watch’s report, ‘South Sudan’s New War: Abuses by Government and Opposition Forces,’ released in August, documents war crimes committed in South Sudan since last December.
The 92-page report is based largely on interviews with survivors and witnesses. Below is the third of several excerpts of the report published by Radio Tamazuj. For readability, the extensive footnoting of the original report is removed, but otherwise the text of the report is reproduced verbatim.
This section of the report recounts events in Upper Nile State in late 2013 and early 2014. Approximately 722 people are reported killed in the events described in this section alone, though that tally is lower than the actual death toll because it does not include estimates for the total number of victims buried after the government recapture of the town in January and after the opposition attack in mid-February.
Attacks on Civilians in Malakal, Upper Nile State
According to the UN, Upper Nile state has seen the heaviest fighting during the conflict. The capital, Malakal, changed hands six times between December and April. On December 24, pro and anti-government forces clashed at SPLA barracks, the airport, and key locations in town. Nuer forces, commanded by Gen. Gathouth Galwak, who defected from the SPLA, held the town for two days before the government recaptured it on December 27 and held it for several weeks.
The town changed hands again with an opposition attack on January 14, 2014. The government recaptured it on January 20, followed by another opposition attack on February 18. The government recaptured the town on March 19 and still holds it. Government forces included the former rebel Shilluk group led by Johnson Olony, who accepted an amnesty and rejoined the SPLA in June 2013.
Following the initial defections and fighting, opposition attacks in January and February included thousands of fighters from the so-called white army. Forces on both sides conducted house-to-house searches, arbitrary arrests, and killed many civilians, often based on their ethnicity. A brutal opposition attack in February included killings inside the Malakal hospital and attacks on churches.
In addition to the targeted killings, civilians were killed in the crossfire during clashes near the UN compound on December 24, January 20, and February 18, and as a result of fighting inside the compound. In mid-January some 200 people fleeing an opposition attack drowned when their boat capsized on the river.
The UN has not made an estimate of the number of people killed in Malakal, but reported that between December 30, 2013, and January 3, 2014, alone 218 bodies were buried in one cemetery. Human Rights Watch spoke to local aid workers who said they had collected around 500 bodies in early January.
The town has been extensively burned and looted, with most of the damage to the market during the initial fighting. On a visit to Malakal in mid-February, Human Rights Watch researchers found the town empty of civilians and many homes burned out or still smoldering. Most civilians fled to villages, churches, the hospital, or the UN base north of the town. Around 20,000 people are still sheltering in the UN base in Malakal.
Attack on Civilians by Opposition Forces, January 2014
On January 14, 2014, opposition forces attacked a second time. During their attack on January 14, the opposition white army fighters, wearing colored headbands to indicate their counties of origin (reportedly Akobo, Nasser, and Fangak areas), went house to house demanding money, phones, food, or other goods, according to witnesses. They looted indiscriminately, including from ethnic Nuer residents, but appear to have carried out more violence against non-Nuer residents.
Many witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Malakal in mid-February said they had left the town before the January 14 attack, taking refuge at the UNMISS compound or other locations. Those who returned to the town after the attack reported seeing dead bodies on the streets or in homes. Many victims apparently had been shot during robberies.
In one example, two armed white army fighters shot a man from Maban county in the face and stomach, killing him instantly, when he refused to hand over money and mobile phones. His 22-year-old wife, who witnessed the shooting, recalled:
“When the rebels came from Nasir, we were at home. Some came together and demanded a mobile. My husband, Jumaa, said ‘No, we don’t have one.’ The rebels left but then two of them came back and again asked for a mobile and money. They pointed their gun at Jumaa and shot him in the belly and in the mouth.”
A priest from Western Equatoria from the Moro ethnic group, who had remained in town following the opposition attack on January 14, said an opposition soldier almost killed his son. The soldier had arrested his son, tied his hands, and took him to the river at gunpoint. “He started to fire in the air, then recognized me and let my son go,” he recalled.
Ethnic Targeting by Government Forces in January
Human Rights Watch received consistent reports from many sources that government soldiers targeted ethnic Nuer males, particularly of fighting age, for arrest and killings in the period between the government’s regain of control of Malakal on January 20, 2014, and several weeks later when the opposition attacked a third time.
Nuer IDP leaders suggest that the brutal attacks by opposition forces and white army in late February were in reprisal for the targeting of Nuer youth by government forces that occurred during this period.
On January 20, the day the government re-took Malakal, a group of soldiers arrested a 20- year-old student with two friends as they were walking to the UN compound for safety. The soldiers tied the youths’ hands with rope, put them in a vehicle, and then handed them over to other soldiers at a military barracks where they shot all three of them, killing two on the spot.
“They lined us up outside of a building and started shooting at us,” he said. “When they shot at me I just fell down.” The three of them were left for dead, but an hour later another soldier discovered that one youth was alive and took him to the hospital. His injuries required amputation of his right hand.
Another student, 18, said that on January 24 a group of government soldiers arrested him and two other Nuer youths at their home in Muderia area, took them to the riverbank, and shot at them. “They took us because we are Nuers,” he said. “They walked us to the riverside near the hospital. They told us to sit down and then they shot us. I tried to run into the river after I was shot and I fell into the water.”
The student was shot in the buttocks and the thigh, and could not walk. A soldier found him later that day and took him to a church. The student believes the other two youths were killed.
A Nuer Presbyterian pastor was among those reported shot dead in the street in the days after the town was recaptured. A fellow clergyman recalled: “One pastor we know was killed. He was collecting his things. He put on his collar and wanted to visit the hospital but was shot on the way.”
Soldiers also arrested Nuer men at the Malakal teaching hospital, where thousands of residents, most of them Nuer, had sought refuge when the government recaptured the town.
Attack on Civilians by Opposition Forces, February 2014
The UNMISS Human Rights Division has reported horrific crimes against people sheltering in churches and the hospital in February 2014. On February 19, opposition forces killed two people in the Christ the King Church, later returning to loot and sexually assault women.
During the same period, white army fighters forced entry into a Catholic church compound, a witness said, demanded to know if there were Dinka sheltering there and threatened to launch a RPG at the church.
They attacked the Malakal Teaching Hospital on February 18, entering with guns, machetes and spears, and killed a number of people after singling them out on the basis of their ethnicity. The opposition forces returned the following day and killed, beat and stole from people in the hospital. The medical aid agency, Médecins Sans Frontières, reported that their staff found 14 dead bodies in the hospital on February 22, including some who appeared to have been shot in their beds.
UNMISS has also reported that opposition forces and white army may have killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed and looted villages as they moved through Baliet county, east of Malakal, on their way to or from the opposition stronghold of Nasir during both the second and third attacks.
Photo: The morgue at the Malakal Teaching Hospital after attacks on the city in January 2014 (AP)
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