At least 16 people have been killed in South Sudan as militiamen targeted civilians based on their ethnicity. Witnesses say the Dinka militiamen, aligned with South Sudan's government, went house to house Monday in the town of Wau searching for people from the local Luo and Fertit ethnic groups. Residents say streets were deserted Monday as families hid inside their homes. The United Nations mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, said its workers saw "the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were 10 people who had been injured."...
• Spreading Violence in S. Sudan Forcing Thousands to Flee to Uganda VOA Africa (3 days ago) - The U.N. refugee agency reports spreading violence in South Sudan’s East Equatoria region is forcing...
• South Africa Says It Did Not Have to Arrest Sudan's Al-Bashir VOA Africa (3 days ago) - South Africa is insisting to International Criminal Court judges that it did not have to...
• Matthew Davies: Can South Africa ditch its new junk status? </s> At least 16 people have been killed in South Sudan as militiamen targeted civilians based on their ethnicity.

Witnesses say the Dinka militiamen, aligned with South Sudan's government, went house to house Monday in the town of Wau searching for people from the local Luo and Fertit ethnic groups. Residents say streets were deserted Monday as families hid inside their homes.

The United Nations mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, said its workers saw "the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were 10 people who had been injured."

U.N. officials have repeatedly warned that South Sudan is at risk of genocide.

U.N. officials say the killings were in retaliation for a rebel attack on government forces in Wau state on Sunday that killed two officers.

UNMISS said about 3,000 people, mostly women and children, had fled to a Catholic Church in town. It said 84 people had sought protection in a civilian encampment protected by U.N. peacekeepers. Residents told reporters that army soldiers were blocking the main road to the encampment, preventing most people from reaching the site.

South Sudan has been beset by violence for more than three years because of a political rivalry between the young country's two leaders.

The power struggle between President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer, broke out in December 2013, after the president accused Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup.

Fighting has split the country along ethnic lines, displaced more than two million people from their homes, and caused food shortages in many areas. </s> NAIROBI (Reuters) - At least 16 people were killed in the South Sudanese town of Wau on Monday, said the United Nations, as witnesses said ethnic militiamen went house to house searching for people from other groups.

Streets were deserted as families hid inside, residents told Reuters by phone. Some reported seeing killings.

Witnesses said the militia members were aligned with the government in the country’s ethnically charged civil war. They accused army soldiers of blocking the main road to a civilian encampment protected by U.N. peacekeepers.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said two U.N. peacekeeping patrols had been sent to the area on Monday and more were expected to patrol on Tuesday. The U.N. peacekeeping mission is known as UNMISS.

“They saw 16 bodies of civilians in a hospital and at least 10 others were injured,” Dujarric told reporters in New York.

“Eighty-four people have arrived at the UNMISS protection of civilians site in Wau, while at least 3,000 people have reportedly moved to a site run by the Catholic church in town and those are mostly women and children,” he said.

South Sudan’s deputy army spokesperson, Colonel Santo Domic Chol, said fighting had first broken out during a mutiny by soldiers at the town’s prison. He was awaiting more information, he said.

The fighting followed an ambush that killed a brigadier general and a colonel in Wau state over the weekend, a rebel spokesman based outside the country said.

“This morning the government forces were retaliating against innocent Fertit people,” he said, referring to a local ethnic group.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it is flying a surgical team to Wau.

“The ICRC has received multiple requests to assist medical staff in Wau with patients wounded in the violence,” a spokesman said.

A staff member at Wau Teaching Hospital said all the bodies it had received appeared to be civilian and all had gunshot wounds.

Five residents, all of whom asked not to be named, described members of the president’s Dinka ethnic group searching for members of the local Luo and Fertit groups. The head of the military is also Dinka.

“We are still inside hiding,” said one man by telephone, speaking from a Wau neighborhood called Nazareth. “I have seen four dead bodies of my neighbors.”

“Armed militias are moving from house to house,” one resident said. “It is an ethnic crackdown.” Another said he had fled an attack that had killed many people, including his cousin.

South Sudan descended into civil war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, fired his deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer. Fighting since then has often split the oil-producing country along ethnic lines and created a patchwork of armed factions.

The country is awash with weapons after decades of conflict with neighboring Sudan and local feuds over land.

BODIES

In another part of Wau, a resident saw two bodies near a feeding center and a couple killed beside the road as they tried to flee to a nearby civilian encampment protected by U.N. peacekeepers.

More than 200,000 people have taken refuge in such sites set up across the country after widespread ethnic killings, many by soldiers. Campaign groups have accused both sides of atrocities.

Two residents said soldiers had blocked off the road leading to the protected site in Wau.

“I and my two sisters tried to get a way to the UNMISS protection site, but we can’t because the road is blocked by government soldiers,” one woman said.

“I saw one woman together with her husband who was killed because they tried to run to UNMISS.”

The army’s Chol said the mutiny had broken out on Monday morning. “Some four prison soldiers in Wau prison decided to mutiny and shot at their own colleagues. They killed two,” he said.

He said there had been fighting in Wau state for the past three days but had no further details on Monday’s fighting, apart from the fact it was taking place along ethnic lines.

“The type of the rebellion which is taking place in Wau ... it is more or less tribal,” he said.

The 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission, which has a base in Wau, has not been able to stop the killing.

“We are aware of the situation in the town and we are looking into it,” U.N. spokesman Daniel Dickinson said. </s> At least 14 people have been killed in South Sudan after new fighting erupted between government forces and the main rebel group.

Lam Paul Gabriel Lam, the SPLM-IO rebel group's spokesman, told Reuters news agency on Saturday during the past two days the army has bombed rebel-held areas around Raga - a northwestern town near the border with Sudan and Central African Republic.

"Yesterday our forces decided to go and raid Raga," he said. "Around 14 people were counted killed but many are injured. We had one soldier killed with some injuries."

Santo Domic Chol, the government's military spokesman, said he was in Raga and would provide information later on.

The United Nations, which has a large peacekeeping force in the East African nation, confirmed the latest outbreak of violence.

"Fresh fighting has broken out between government and opposition forces in a number of locations including Raga in the west of South Sudan, Waat in Jonglei to the east, and in the area of Wunkur and Tonga in the northern Upper Nile region," the UN said in a statement.

Aid workers flee

The surge in fighting in eastern South Sudan has forced 60 aid workers to flee, hurting efforts to help desperate civilians in the famine-hit nation, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said on Saturday,.

Three UN World Food Programme workers were killed this week while trying to get to a supply warehouse amid fighting between rebel and government troops near the western city of Wau.

"There are no words left to explain the level of frustration and outrage I feel regarding the continued attacks against humanitarians in South Sudan who are simply trying to help the civilians suffering as a result of this conflict," said Eugene Owusu, OCHA coordinator, in a statement.

"Separately, 60 humanitarian workers have had to relocate from multiple locations in Jonglei yesterday and today - including Waat and Walgak - due to intensified conflict in the area."

The outbreak of violence in the eastern Jonglei region came after fierce clashes in southern Pajok and western Wau in the past two weeks.

According to a tally of UN figures and deaths that witnesses reported to AFP, 101 people were killed in the two towns.

OPINION: South Sudan not facing 'genocide', but violence is constant

The UN peacekeeping mission UNMISS, which has been blocked from accessing some conflict zones, said 13,500 people had fled to their base near Wau this week. More than 3,000 others were seeking refuge at a Catholic church compound.

Moustapha Soumare, the special representative for the UN secretary general in South Sudan, on Saturday called for a halt to fighting, urging "all parties to prove their commitment to peace".

"They must show restraint and demonstrate their responsibility to ensure the sanctity of life of all South Sudanese citizens," he said in a statement.

Oil-rich South Sudan has been riven by violence since 2013, when President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer.

The political showdown quickly split along ethnic lines and has drawn many tribes into a complex patchwork of conflict. </s> At least 16 killed in fighting in South Sudan second city



 Juba, South Sudan | AFP | At least 16 civilians were killed in fighting Monday between government troops and rebels in South Sudan’s second-largest city Wau, the United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNMISS) said in a statement.

The violence stemmed from an ambush Sunday of government troops near the city, leading to clashes in the city the following day, UNMISS said.

“The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured,” the statement said.

Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the country descended into civil war in 2013.

The city itself has remained under the control of forces loyal to Machar’s arch-enemy President Salva Kiir throughout.

UNMISS said troops, tanks and equipment from the SPLA national army had moved towards areas controlled by the rebels in the south-western part of Wau late last week.

At least 3,000 people — mostly women and children — sought shelter in a Catholic church, while another 84 had sought refuge at an UNMISS Protection of Civilians site.

Civilians who spoke to AFP described targeted killings in the city some 650 kilometres (404 miles) from the capital Juba.

“The (people) who came are reporting to us that there are SPLA soldiers in the residential areas,” said Moses Peter, a priest, who confirmed that up to 3,000 people were sheltering in his church.

“They are shooting and are targeting certain groups of people and they are even looting houses.”

Local resident Tibur Erynio, 41, said a tally of the dead from his neighbours stood at 18, most of them from minority ethnic groups the Jur and Balanda.

The civilians were “killed because they are suspected of supporting rebels,” said Erynio, adding that this was not true.

Erynio said shops and markets in the city’s southern half were closed and the government had told people to stay indoors.

“You can only see people are moving, running either to the church for protection” or to a UN peacekeeping compound, he said.

One local resident, who asked not to be named, told AFP he had found his brother “lying in blood after he was shot”, and had counted five other dead bodies.

Another, who gave her name as Mary Joseph said: “we saw three people lying dead in different places.”

The International Committee for the Red Cross said it was rushing surgical teams to the city to assist the wounded.

The military and rebels gave conflicting accounts of the violence.

Military spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol said the fighting started as government troops were trying to rout rebels from strongholds in the countryside.

Forces loyal to Machar took cover among civilians when the skirmishes reached Wau town on Monday, Domic said.

Four prison guards were killed in the fighting, Domic said, without elaborating.

A spokesman for the rebels William Gatjiath Deng said the fighting stemmed from an ambush laid by the rebels outside of Wau on Sunday that left 35 soldiers from a government-aligned militia dead.

The surviving pro-regime forces returned to Wau, where Deng said they killed 50 civilians in “house-to-house” raids.

Both accounts were impossible to verify.

Deng said the troops were from the same militia responsible for fighting last week in the southern town of Pajok that forced 6,000 people to flee across the border to Uganda.

South Sudan’s leaders fought for decades for independence, but once they got it in 2011, civil war erupted in 2013 out of a power struggle between Kiir and his former deputy Machar.

At least 1.7 million people have fled the country because of the war, and 1.9 million are internally displaced.

The war has also created a man-made famine, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis.

The post At least 16 killed in fighting in South Sudan second city appeared first on The Independent Uganda:.

This post was syndicated from The Independent Uganda:. Click here to read the full text on the original website.

Also, Like us on facebook </s> No fewer than 16 civilians have been killed and ten others injured in South Sudan’s northwestern town of Wau following sporadic fighting between government-backed militia and local youth, the UN mission said Monday.The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said the fighting started after a number of government SPLA soldiers were killed in an ambush on Sunday in the south of Wau.“The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured,” the UNMISS said in a statement.The UN mission said 84 people have arrived at the UN protection of civilian site, while an influx of at least 3,000 people into a Catholic church in the town, mostly women and children, has been reported.“The fighting follows the movement of SPLA troops, tanks and equipment towards the southwestern part of Wau late last week,” UNMISS said.South Sudan has been devastated by civil strife that broke out in December 2013. Tens of thousands of South Sudanese have been killed, with over 2 million displaced since then.A peace deal signed in August 2015 led to the formation of a transitional unity government, but was again shattered by fresh violence in July, 2016. </s> At least 16 civilians have lost their lives and several others sustained injuries in clashes between government troops and armed rebel forces in South Sudan, official reports say, PressTV reported.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement that the fighting had stemmed from a Sunday ambush of the South Sudanese government troops near the country’s second largest city of Wau and had led to clashes the following day.

"The Mission mounted two patrols into Wau on Monday and said it had observed the bodies of 16 civilians in a hospital. There were ten people who had been injured," the statement said.

Reports said at least 3,000 residents of Wau, mostly women and children, had sought shelter in a Catholic church, while another 84 took refuge at a UN protection site to escape the killings.

Wau is located in a region that has repeatedly changed hands between government troops and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar since the country plunged into civil war in 2013.

The city is some 650 kilometers from the capital Juba.

UNMISS noted that troops, tanks and equipment from Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) had been deployed to areas controlled by the rebels in the southwestern part of Wau last week.

South Sudan gained independence in July 2011, but descended into a bloody civil war in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup against him. The two sides then got involved in a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the impoverished country along ethnic lines between the rival communities of Dinka and Nuer, killing thousands of people.

A peace agreement convinced Machar to return to Juba, but a new wave of fighting broke out again in the African country in July 2016.

Machar is currently in exile in South Africa after fleeing the new spate of violence. Numerous international attempts to reach a truce between the warring sides have failed.

The persisting conflict has so far killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions of others from their homes, divided much of the population along ethnic lines and crippled agriculture. According to the United Nations, the impoverished country is also facing famine. </s> BANGUI (Reuters) - An armed militia killed 34 civilians in an attack on Tuesday in Central African Republic, a government spokesman said, issuing a deadline for the group’s leader to give up the perpetrators to the authorities.

The attack was the most deadly since 14 armed groups agreed a peace deal in February that was meant to bring stability to a country rocked by violence since 2013, when mainly Muslim Selaka rebels ousted the then president, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militia.

The group ‘Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation,’ or 3R, attacked a number of villages in the northwest region Pahoua, seeking revenge for the killing of an ethnic Peul, government spokesman Ange Kazagui said at a joint briefing on Wednesday with the United Nation’s MINUSCA peacekeeping mission.

The government calls on 3R leader Sidiki Abass to “arrest and hand over those responsible for this massacre to the authorities in the next 72 hours or risk being held personally responsible”, Kazagui said.

The bloodshed will further test the peace agreement, which has already come under strain due to disagreements over representation in the cabinet.

“MINUSCA asks 3R in particular and all the armed groups in general to show strict respect for international human rights and the reconciliation and peace agreement,” MINUSCA spokeswoman Uwolowulakana Ikavi-Gbetanou said at the briefing.

The government and rebels expressed optimism when the accord was signed on Feb. 5. But lasting peace is not guaranteed: similar agreements in 2014, 2015 and 2017 all broke down.

The 3R group emerged in late 2015 to protect the minority Peul population, who are mostly Muslim cattle herders, from attacks by Christian anti-balaka militias.

Thousands of people have died because of the unrest in the diamond and gold-producing country, and a fifth of the 4.5 million population have fled their homes. </s> Seven people died in a raid by suspected Ugandan Islamist rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest in a string of deadly cross-border attacks, officials said Sunday.

"Six people were shot dead and another was stabbed" in the village of Eringeti in DR Congo's restive North Kivu province, a Congolese military source told AFP.

Eringeti's mayor Leon Baungatho said the assault happened around 5.30 pm (1530 GMT) on Saturday.

"We are still grieving," said regional official Noela Kavivutwiraki. "The army needs to redouble its efforts to prevent suprise attacks from Ugandan rebels."

Thought to be behind a string of deadly attacks in North Kivu, the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia stands accused of a number of attrocities in DR Congo.

Congolese authorities and the UN mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, accuse the ADF of having killed more than 700 civilians as well as combatants in the Beni region from 2014-16.

The ADF is also accused of killing 14 UN peacekeepers in eastern DR Congo on December 7, in the biggest single loss of peacekeepers in nearly a quarter of a century.

The government in January declared it was waging "war" on the ADF and a Congolese militia, the Yakutumba, which is active in South Kivu province, several hundred kilometres (miles) to the south.
Government-aligned militias kill 16 people during a raid in Wau, South Sudan.