Understanding the Bentiu massacres in South Sudan
‘Hundreds’ of people were killed in Bentiu, South Sudan, on 15-16 April, including many civilians, according to the United Nations. Several mass killings took place at a mosque, hospital, along roadsides and elsewhere.
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) documented the aftermath of the killings, and issued a brief statement condemning the killings, but the peacekeepers have not yet made public any of their detailed findings.
The events of 15-16 April in Bentiu still therefore remain obscure to many. In spite of widespread media attention and many condemnations, basic facts about the events have yet to be established and accepted, both within and outside South Sudan.
This article is not meant to offer a comprehensive account of what happened in Bentiu during the April massacres. It is only meant to serve as an introduction to the basic known facts and context.
Context: Unity state
Bentiu, the capital of Unity state, is in the north-central part of South Sudan. Oil fields near the town were productive until December 2013, when attacks on oil workers and infrastructure forced operating companies to evacuate.
Most of the state is rural with the main town being the capital Bentiu and its twin city Rubkona, on the opposite bank of the Bahr el Ghazal river. Other key towns include Mayom and Leer, both of which have been devastated in fighting.
In terms of ethnic composition, seven of the nine counties in the state are predominantly or entirely populated by Nuer, whereas the two northernmost counties Pariang and Abiemnhom are Dinka-inhabited.
These two counties have remained under government control throughout the crisis since December, whereas other areas have been contested or fallen under rebel control.
Context: Armed groups
There are two main groups involved in the civil war in South Sudan. One is the government army (SPLA) loyal to President Salva Kiir. These troops are recruited from a mix of different tribes, including Nuer and Dinka, the president’s own tribe.
The other is the rebel army (SPLA-IO) – consisting mainly of defected troops and allied civilian militia – loyal to Riek Machar, the ousted vice president. These troops are almost all ethnically Nuer, the ex-vice president’s tribe.
A third group was involved in fighting in Unity state on the side of the government, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a north Sudanese rebel movement that fights mostly in Darfur and Kordofan. Although the movement has no stated objectives in South Sudan, its troops are familiar with Unity state, having previously used it as a rear base of operations. According to Machar’s rebels, JEM’s involvement in the Unity state fighting is purely mercenary – i.e., they are being paid to fight, in either money or materiel. Most of the JEM troops are ethnically Darfuri, Arab or Nuba.
SPLA-in-Opposition clashed with SPLA for several days near to Bentiu prior to overrunning the city. The rebels claimed to have captured the town already on the night of 14 April, but apparently did not really enter or consolidate control over Bentiu until 15 April.
Perpetrators
The mass killings took place in Bentiu immediately after the capture of the town by rebel forces loyal to SPLM/A-in-Opposition leader Riek Machar, under the command of the defected SPLA general James Koang.
Survivors identify these forces – ‘rebels’ – as the perpetrators of the mass killings. However, survivor accounts also suggest that some of the rebel forces intervened to stop the killings. In at least one of the mass killings, a group of perpetrators described as ‘rebels’ was stopped midway through a massacre by another group also described as ‘rebels’.
There have also been claims by South Sudan’s foreign minister and army spokesman that Arab militia or mercenaries known popularly as ‘Janjaweed’ were involved in the killings. However, credible independent witness accounts are lacking as to the involvement of any Arab militia in the perpetration of the massacres. All of the published victim accounts refer to ‘soldiers’ or ‘rebels’, never to Arabs.
Motives
Since no perpetrators have yet been individually identified, it remains difficult to attribute a motive to the killings. The most credible explanations of possible motives are: (a) ethnic hatred; (b) a desire for revenge against government troops and their supporters or perceived supporters for violence perpetrated during government offensives in the state earlier in the year, or elsewhere in the country; (c) greed – a number of survivor accounts mention that victims were robbed before being killed.
Method of killings
Perpetrators used small arms to kill their victims, according to most reports. In some incidents, victims were reportedly shot while lying down. Others were reportedly shot while lined up, and others while fleeing.
Sometimes the intended victims were first separated from other civilians. At the mosque massacre, for example, the perpetrators “separated individuals of certain nationalities and ethnic groups and escorted them to safety, while the others were killed,” according to UNMISS.
Victims
Bentiu town had seen massive displacement in December and early January, after fighting for control of the town, causing most civilians to flee to outlying villages, neighboring states, the UN base, or to their counties of origin. By mid-April, however, significant numbers of civilians had returned, including foreign traders, civil servants, laborers, police and others.
Many victims were such civilian returnees. Besides civilians, another victim group were deserters or captured soldiers from the government army (SPLA) who were executed instead of being treated as prisoners of war.
The most widely reported and perhaps numerically significant massacres in Bentiu were carried out on the basis of ethnic targeting by Nuer rebel soldiers against north Sudanese traders, mostly from Darfur.
Before the killings, many north Sudanese had no reason to believe they were going to be targeted and so rather than fleeing the city they sought shelter in sanctuaries such as the mosque, in order to avoid stray gunfire.
Other targeted ethnicities included the Dinka, many of whom worked as civil servants, traders or in other professions in the state capital. They would have been aware that they faced likely ethnic targeting by the rebel army, so many fled the city before the attack, while others were taken surprise by the speed of the attack and were unable to leave.
Finally, Nuer rebel fighters also targeted some other Nuer civilians, not because of their ethnicity but because they were considered collaborators with the government, or also, according to one report, because they hid rather than went out to celebrate the rebel takeover of the city.
Such Nuer versus Nuer violence is not unprecedented and has long been a significant aspect of the ethno-political dynamics in the state. This has been touched on in some recent news reporting, as well as in the January briefing by Small Arms Survey. An historic reference on the same issue is ‘The Segmentation of SPLA-United and the Nuer Civil War,’ a work by historian Douglas Johnson.
In terms of the gender breakdown of victims, no one has yet reported a breakdown by gender. It appears from reports that most or the victims were men, but some women were also killed.
Casualty estimates
There is little reporting about the actual number of people killed in the Bentiu massacres of 15-16 April, and the existing reports are conflicting.
Western media have resorted to a consensus estimation of ‘hundreds’ of civilians killed, apparently relying on an UNMISS report. The mission stated that “more than 200 civilians” were killed and over 400 wounded in the Kali-Ballee Mosque massacre alone. But the mission’s deputy representative also reported seeing “piles and piles” of bodies elsewhere in the town.
By comparison, north Sudanese media, citing Darfur traders who knew many of those killed, have put the figure at 406.
Neither of those figures are necessarily comprehensive, since the UN figure appears to exclude mass killings carried out elsewhere in the town and the Sudanese media figure possibly excludes victims of non-Darfuri ethnicities.
Besides the largest reported massacre at the mosque, there were reports of “up to 33 people” killed in Bentiu State Hospital (MSF figure), exactly 45 people killed at the home of Adam Juma Jodallah, a prominent merchant in Bentiu (Radio Tamazuj report), and “several individuals” killed at the Catholic church and vacated WFP compound (UNMISS figure).
In terms of wounded, MSF has reported treating more than 230 people for gunshot wounds, some of whom may have been combatants rather than civilian victims. Other wounded were likely treated at UN or other medical facilities, so a total figure is not available.
Hate radio
It has been widely reported that Bentiu FM was used by rebel commanders to incite violence against civilians. UNMISS reported that commanders took over the radio station and “broadcast hate messages declaring that certain ethnic groups should not stay in Bentiu and even calling on men from one community to commit vengeful sexual violence against women from another community.”
However, it remains unclear whether these on-air speeches were made before or after the massacres. Most rebel fighters or armed civilians probably do not own radio sets anyway; media penetration is extremely limited in Unity state, and the only other electronic medium available is the mobile phone network.
Any incitement that occurred is therefore more likely to have been carried out through other mediums, such as speeches or songs.
Photographs
The United Nations and media that visited the massacre sites in the company of UN peacekeepers withheld publishing most of the most gruesome images of the victims. Nonetheless, some images of the massacre sites were published by news outlets or circulated on social media, and are linked here (Reuters, AP, BBC, UNIFEED, Kenyabwala, and Al Jazeera). Viewers are warned that images are graphic and disturbing.
Eyewitness account: Medical worker
Radio Tamazuj has previously published interviews with survivors of the mosque massacre. The interviews that follow were recorded by the medical aid organization MSF about the hospital massacre.
Fighting started around 6:30 in the morning. Civilians and defectors had fled to the hospital compound when fighting started. Opposition forces entered the compound around 9:30 searching for defectors [i.e. deserters from the government army].
The soldiers were accusing us of being on the side of the Government, saying anyone that stayed in Bentiu under government control were traitors. We told them we were medical staff. They started gathering defectors. I was hiding under one of the buildings with other hospital staff. We saw a group of people killed. In the group was a Ministry of Health staff, a Darfuri man, 1 Nuer woman and 2 Nuer men.
The Darfuri resisted being taken away and the entire group was killed. 22 Darfuri were taken behind the compound and 21 of them were killed. One was a child, so he wasn’t killed. Later I saw the bodies of three Darfuris that had been killed in front of the hospital and another three Darfuris that were killed inside the hospital grounds.
I was here when they brought the wounded Darfuris from the mosque. They were beaten and robbed by other patients in uniform, who didn’t want them in the hospital. After the soldiers left, I went to the UNMISS compound – I don’t feel safe at the hospital anymore. Many people have relations in both armies. I’m afraid to leave the UN base.
Eyewitness account: Medical worker
This interview was recorded by the medical aid organization MSF; the text that follows are the words of a medical worker whose name is withheld for their own protection.
The anti-government forces arrived at around 9:30. They told everyone to come out of the buildings and not to hide. They said they were looking for deserters, not civilians. They started searching room by room and under buildings.
They killed people that didn’t cooperate or resisted being taken away.
Three Darfuris were killed in front of the hospital compound, 2 Darfuris and 1 Dinka was killed near the back gate. In one building, 4 Nuer men and 1 Nuer woman were killed. One of them worked for the Ministry of Health. Outside that building a Darfuri was killed. More were killed behind the compound.
It will be hard to operate the hospital now – of 54 nurses, only 22 have returned and of 20 medical officers only 3 have returned. We were doing 300-500 consultations in our outpatient department before the fighting. In the past few days, we have only done 76. We rely on the Ministry of Health, so now that we are cut off from them, it will be impossible to get supplies.
Even if the patients come back, it will be hard to do more consultations without more staff. But they are afraid there will be more violence.
Eyewitness account: Hospital eyewitness
This interview was recorded by the medical aid organization MSF; the text that follows are the words of a survivor whose name is withheld for their own protection.
The morning of the fighting, people came to the hospital for safety, including children who had been separated from their families. Later that morning, soldiers came into the hospital.
They started shooting people who ran away or tried to hide.
If you stopped, it was okay. Under one building, they shot one Dinka and one Darfuri who were trying to escape. One didn’t die right away, I tried to save him, but he died later. I think 2 Ministry of Health staff were killed. A group of at least 20 Darfuris were killed as they tried to escape out the back gate. There were also Nuer who were killed for being traitors.
Later I saw the bodies of three Darfuris that were killed outside the front gate. I am staying in UNMISS now. I will not say that I feel safe working at the hospital, but what am I supposed to do?
Eyewitness account: Hospital patient
This interview was recorded by the medical aid organization MSF; the text that follows are the words of a patient whose name is withheld for their own protection.
I work as a businessman in the market. When rumours started that the opposition was going to attack, a group of us decided to go to UNMISS for protection. We were stopped by the SPLA and asked where we were going. We told them we wanted to go to UNMISS to be safe, but they wouldn’t let us go through; they said that the security situation was going to be fine.
We went back to the market, but started sleeping in the mosque for safety. When the fighting started, we all went to the mosque. There were many, many people there, including Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese and women and children. Uniformed men came inside, first one group and then another. They kept asking for money. Another group came in and started shooting at people and asking if we were fighters and telling us to give them our guns. We told them we didn’t have any.
Everyone was lying on their stomachs and there were armed men at all the windows and doors. After the shooting first started, another group of the rebels came and told the ones shooting to stop killing people.
After I was shot, I lost consciousness. Later, the same group of rebels that told the shooters to stop killing us gathered the injured and took them to the hospital. UNMISS came and got us and brought us here to this hospital. I am waiting for surgery. Then I just want to go home.
Eyewitness account: Hospital patient
This interview was recorded by the medical aid organization MSF; the text that follows are the words of a patient whose name is withheld for their own protection.
I have a business in the market. I had just brought goods back from Juba when the fighting started. I ran to the mosque. There were between 200-300 people there. Rebels came in and started accusing us of being on the side of the government.
They took our money and then started shooting us.
Another group of armed men came and started yelling, “why are you killing them?” The shooting finally stopped. So many people were killed, I couldn’t count. I saw five women killed and two children.
The same group of rebels that stopped shooting took the injured to the hospital. While we were there, men in uniforms came and beat us, taking our blankets and other belongings. We stayed there until UNMISS came and got us to bring us here to safety.
Aftermath
In the aftermath of the massacres, thousands of people fled to the UNMISS base in Bentiu. About 6,000 people had been seeking shelter there before the violence, but in the wake of it the number rose to more than 22,000, causing significant humanitarian problems.
MSF says the displaced now “face a desperate choice between grave health conditions inside the UNMISS base and life-threatening security conditions outside.”
The UN camp itself was also attacked by two rockets on 17 April, one of which exploded, wounding a seven-year-old child.
Soon after the massacres, UNMISS appealed for “urgent military reinforcements” to protect the population of civilians who had sought their protection at the Bentiu base.
Photo: Heavy machinery is used to move bodies of victims of the Bentiu killings (UN photo)
Related coverage:
Exclusive: Bentiu massacre survivors speak (23 Apr.)
UN confirms massacres in South Sudan, says FM being used for hate messages (21 Apr.)
Hundreds feared dead in Bentiu massacres (17 Apr.)