UPDATE 2 -- UN official describes S. Sudan conflict as civil war, reports new mass killings

[News_Editor]

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 in the capital.

"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 concluding a four-day visit to the country. "What I saw was a horror."

Å imonoviÄ said thousands of people have died in mass atrocities committed by both sides of the conflict, referring to the Dinka ethnic group and their rival group the Lou Nuer. "One month of conflict has set South Sudan back a decade," the official said, adding that hundreds of thousands of people have also been displaced, with some 100,000 seeking protection at UN camps and compounds alone.

"Clearly the crisis, which started as a political one, has now taken on an inter-ethnic dimension that urgently needs to be addressed. People on both sides are absolutely convinced that the other side is to blame, which makes the situation even more dangerous," the UN official said. "This highlights the need for an independent fact-finding commission to establish the truth of these terrible events."

Å imonoviÄ said the worst affected communities appear to be in the capital Juba, the oil town Bentiu and Jonglei state capital Bor. Particularly Bentiu and Bor have been the scene of widespread communal violence and destruction because power in those areas has shifted between government troops and rebels several times.

The official said both Bentiu and Bor have become "ghost towns" as all civilians have fled from those areas. "The extent of the looting, burning and destruction is hard to grasp for anybody who hasn't been there," he said about the oil town. "Destruction and death is everywhere in Bentiu."

Meanwhile, the United Nations said on Friday that it was investigating new reports of a mass atrocity in Juba. 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.

Other details about the alleged mass killing were not immediately available, but the report follows other mass murders in recent weeks. "During my visit, I have received reports of mass killings, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, the widespread destruction of property and the use of children in the conflict," Å imonoviÄ said.

The UN official, who will soon brief the UN Security Council on the crisis, said "accountability is key" and urged for the establishment of an independent and impartial fact-finding commission as soon as possible. "Those who committed these terrible crimes, who ordered them or those who did nothing to prevent them while they were in a position to do so, all these people should be held accountable without delay," he said.

The current crisis began on the evening of December 15 when gunfire erupted at the end of a meeting of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) party, followed by an attack on the army headquarters near Juba University. Heavy gunfire and artillery fire in Juba and its suburbs continued the next day, prompting hundreds of terrified civilians to seek shelter at United Nations (UN) compounds.

President Salva Kiir, dressed in military uniform and accompanied by senior officials, addressed the nation on December 16 and attributed the violence to a "failed coup attempt" by soldiers loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar Teny. Machar, along with the country's entire cabinet, was sacked in July 2013 in Kiir's apparent struggle to maintain control of the SPLM, but the exact extent of his role in the conflict remains disputed.

Fighting intensified on December 17 and spread to other parts of the country that is prone to ethnic instability, with Kiir being from the Dinka ethnic group and Machar being a Lou Nuer. It is believed that more than 1,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of violence last month, but the International Crisis Group estimates that figure is no less than 10,000.

South Sudan became the world's newest country when it broke away from Sudan on July 9, 2011, as a culmination of a six-year peace process which began in January 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

(Copyright 2014 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)