Amnesty says UN and South Sudan failed to act on warnings before massacre
More than 200 people died in the March 1 attack on Abiemnom, and the UN mission says it did its best with limited resources.
Amnesty International said in a report released Thursday that UN peacekeepers and South Sudanese authorities failed to act adequately on warnings before an attack on Abiemnom, a remote area near the Sudan border. The assault took place on March 1 and killed more than 200 people. Amnesty said between 1,000 and 1,500 men, all armed, from nearby Mayom County did it.
According to Amnesty, residents were shot, homes were burned and part of the hospital was looted. Authorities tally at least 213 dead: 130 townspeople, 76 security forces members and seven foreigners. Amnesty says the UN mission, known as UNMISS, knew an attack was likely but reinforced its roughly three dozen peacekeepers there only after it happened.
Priyanka Chowdhury, a UNMISS spokesperson, said the mission did its best with limited resources, focusing on protecting civilians sheltering at its base. She said it repeatedly asked the national army to send more forces, and it sent 40 more police after the attack. Amnesty said the attack may have been triggered by earlier killings of several young men from Mayom County.
South Sudanese authorities did not respond to Amnesty's two letters. Amnesty called for a separate review of the peacekeepers' response and an independent probe into the killings.
- at least 213dead, by authorities' countABC News
- Between 1,000 and 1,500armed men in the attack, per AmnestyABC News
- roughly 2,500people who sheltered at the UNMISS protected areaABC News
- more than 230structures burned, by satellite imageryABC News
- from 17,000 to 12,000UNMISS authorized troop ceiling, cut by the Security Council in AprilABC News
Three sides of the story
4 news outlets reported this
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Liberal2 outlets
UN and government failures, with elections looming
Al Jazeera English leads with Amnesty's finding that UN peacekeepers and South Sudanese authorities failed to act on warnings. It quotes Amnesty's Tigere Chagutah: "Their failure to take stronger action cost lives." Al Jazeera adds a section on UN force cuts and sets the report against elections due December 22.
It reports that African Union envoy Jakaya Kikwete urged the Security Council to help keep the vote peaceful, and that the International Crisis Group's Murithi Mutiga warned a rushed vote could be "a final blow" to the 2018 peace deal. ABC News runs the Associated Press report under the headline "UN peacekeepers failed to protect civilians before South Sudan massacre, Amnesty says." It adds that Amnesty interviewed 82 people, relays survivors' accounts, including a mother of seven whose daughter-in-law was shot, and notes that Chowdhury's statement did not explicitly address why police were sent only after the attack.
Both give UNMISS's budget-cut explanation.
Center1 outlet
Amnesty's findings and the UN mission's response
The Seattle Times runs the Associated Press report from Nairobi, the same wire text ABC News carries. It opens with Amnesty saying peacekeepers and authorities failed to act adequately on warnings weeks before the raid. It gives the attack's scale, with 1,000 to 1,500 armed men and a toll of at least 213 "according to authorities."
It quotes Chagutah and then Chowdhury, who said the mission faced budget cuts and focused on protecting civilians at its base. The report notes she acknowledged tensions had been high since mid-February and that the mission asked the army for more forces. It describes the 82 interviews, satellite imagery and two mass graves.
It says Chowdhury's statement did not explicitly address why police came after the attack, and that Government spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny did not respond to the AP. It closes with the cut in the UNMISS troop ceiling.
Conservative1 outlet
Amnesty's report faulting UN and South Sudan
The Washington Times reports that Amnesty International, in a report released Thursday, said UN peacekeepers and South Sudanese authorities did not do enough after warnings weeks ahead of a raid by insurgents on a village, where more than 200 people died.
- The Washington Times: U.N. peacekeepers failed to protect civilians before South Sudan massacre, Amnesty says
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All sources: 4 articles from 4 outlets
Liberal (2)
- ABC News: UN peacekeepers failed to protect civilians before South Sudan massacre, Amnesty says
- Al Jazeera English: Amnesty says UN, South Sudan officials failed to prevent village massacre
Center (1)
- The Seattle Times: UN peacekeepers failed to protect civilians before South Sudan massacre, Amnesty says
Conservative (1)
- The Washington Times: U.N. peacekeepers failed to protect civilians before South Sudan massacre, Amnesty says
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