JUBA, South Sudan (AP) – South Sudanese pro-government forces killed 114 civilians in a single town last year amid growing ethnic violence in the country’s civil war, a new United Nations report said Friday.
The investigation released by the U.N. human rights office said those cases and other abuses in the town of Yei between July and January may amount to crimes against humanity. Abuses include the indiscriminate shelling of civilians, attacks on funerals, looting and burning and sexual violence – often brutally committed in front of victims’ families
Yei is where The Associated Press late last year witnessed bodies with their hands bound. Satellite images showed “widespread burning of homes and businesses,” the report said.
The new report pointed out the “startling level of impunity in South Sudan” that has fed cycles of deadly ethnic violence.
South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny rejected the report’s findings, saying the government is operating within the law. “It’s not true,” he told the AP. “(Ethnic) Dinkas in that area were being targeted by rebels.” Ethnic Dinkas dominate the military and government of President Salva Kiir.