United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon appointed a former Dutch major general on Tuesday to lead a month long inquiry into the response by peacekeepers to some attacks on civilians, including at a hotel, during violence in South Sudan’s capital last month.
Patrick Cammaert “will review reports of incidents of attacks on civilians and cases of sexual violence that occurred within or in the vicinity of the U.N. House Protection of Civilians sites in Juba,” UNspokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The inquiry will determine whether the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan responded appropriately to those incidents and an attack on Juba’s Hotel Terrain during several days of fighting between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing former Vice President Riek Machar last month.
Dujarric said last week in a statement that Ban was “alarmed” by the initial findings of a U.N. fact-finding mission into the attack on the hotel on July 11 by uniformed men who killed a journalist and raped several civilians.
The findings of Cammaert’s inquiry will be made public, Dujarric said.
Hundreds of people were killed, and the United Nations said government soldiers and security forces executed civilians and gang-raped women and girls during and after last month’s fighting. South Sudan rejected the accusations.
Photo: UN Peacekeepers in Juba (Credit: UNMISS)