Amnesty International says U.N. peacekeepers had weeks of warning before an attack killed more than 200 people in South Sudan but failed to do enough to protect civilians
NAIROBI, Kenya -- United Nations peacekeepers and South Sudanese authorities failed to take adequate action despite warnings weeks before insurgents raided a village and killed more than 200 people earlier this year, Amnesty International said in a report released Thursday.
The rights group said that the peacekeeping mission, known by the acronym UNMISS, knew that an attack on Abiemnom, a remote area near the border with Sudan, was likely but failed to reinforce the roughly three dozen peacekeepers based there until after it occurred.
Between 1,000 and 1,500 armed men from neighboring Mayom County carried out the March 1 attack, shooting residents, burning homes and looting part of the hospital, Amnesty said.
The death toll was at least 213, according to authorities, including 130 town residents, 76 security personnel and seven foreign nationals.
“Both the government and UNMISS had sufficient information and time to take more effective preventive action. Their failure to take stronger action cost lives,” said Tigere Chagutah, an Amnesty regional director.
UNMISS spokesperson Priyanka Chowdhury said in a statement that the mission did its best with limited resources to provide protection and medical care to the roughly 2,500 people…
