URGENT -- UN official describes S. Sudan conflict as civil war, says thousands dead

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN (BNO NEWS) -- A top United Nations (UN) human rights official on Friday said the conflict in South Sudan has become a full-blown civil war, saying thousands of people have been killed in widespread violence and destruction. It comes amid new reports of mass killings.

"The conflict has now reached the threshold of an internal armed conflict, causing untold suffering for thousands of civilians," said Ivan Å imonoviÄ, the UN's Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, after visiting the country. "What I saw was a horror. Destruction and death is everywhere in Bentiu, which has now become a ghost town."

Meanwhile, the United Nations said it had received new reports of a mass atrocity in Juba, the South Sudanese capital. It said reports suggest "large numbers" of civilians were rounded up and taken to a police station in the city's Gudele neighborhood before being executed because of their ethnicity.

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