‘Teresa’, a survivor of an attack on a village in Unity State earlier this month, says that she saw children killed by soldiers during recent military operations. She says she heard soldiers say that they would kill all young men and all boys.
The account published here was recorded by staff of the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF), who interviewed survivors at a UN peacekeeping base. ‘Teresa’ is not her real name.
Teresa, 27 years old:
“When we ran away, we heard that they were taking women and children. Children over 12 were killed. I saw some children killed. I have three brothers, 13, 14 and 25 years old, and they all went to the north because they knew that they would be killed if they came to Bentiu.
“The soldiers were shouting that they were going to kill them. They said that they were going to kill all of the young men and all of the boys because they would be the ones to come back and seek revenge for this attack.
“They are not allowing us to take food to the elderly men and women that stayed behind. They weren’t able to run like us. All the healthy looking people that didn’t run, they were hanged.”
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