UN envoy condemns "horrific killing" of 45 people in South Sudan

30 Novembre 2017

Juba, South Sudan, November 30 (Infosplusgabon) - At least 45 people have been killed in South Sudan's Jonglei region, UN Special Envoy for South Sudan David Shearer said on Wednesday.

Shearer said the killings of “innocent civilians” in Jonglei  were “horrific."

Reports suggested that around 45 people were killed and 19 injured when members of the Murle ethnic group attacked a Dinka village on Tuesday.

“I utterly condemn these killings and the abduction of some 60 women and children which accompanied these attacks,” said Mr Shearer in a statement. “I urge the leaders of both communities to reign in the youth, show restraint and to put an end to the cycle of revenge killings."

According to Shearer, it is crucial that the national and local authorities support the community leaders and work to bring the perpetrators of all attacks to account.

Murle and Dinka communities in Jonglei have been engaged in long-standing inter-ethnic violence, which has operated outside the wider political conflict that has affected South Sudan since 2013.

“The perpetrators of this violence have undermined the ongoing peace and reconciliation efforts that the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has supported in Jonglei.

“The engagement that UNMISS has had with both communities has shown that the vast majority of people want to end the destructive pattern of revenge attacks,” said Mr Shearer,

According to the statement, the dead included humanitarian workers who were “working selflessly for the people of Jonglei.”

Their deaths are “pointless and utterly contemptible,” Mr. Shearer added.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/TRF/GABON 2017

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