The United Nations will send a team of human rights investigators to Mangalla to probe possible crimes committed during the recent clashes.
“We recognise the variety of approaches, and the first thing is to determine what has happened. “So we need human rights monitors out there to record who did what to whom,” The Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in South Sudan, Nicholas Haysom, told the media at a press conference in Juba.
Haysom added that UNMISS will liaise with local leaders and the government to push for the prosecution of suspects.
“We will continue to lobby as we work for people to respond to their responsibilities to engage in these conflicts and resolve them.” “We must also ensure that our army patrols go as far as they can in the districts of Eastern Equatoria and Central Equatoria to discourage violence against communities.”
He said he had met separately with the governors of Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, and Jonglei during the sixth Governors Forum, which was held in Juba last year, to discuss the best ways to address the communal violence. However, the governors said they needed the support of the central government to address the problem
The vicious assault that occurred in Mangalla on December 31 appeared complicated since the leadership of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces and the Bari community were expressing diametrically opposed views.
Early this month, the spokesperson of the army issued a press statement stating the soldiers from SSPDF deployed to patrol along the River Nile fought with elements of National Salvation Front (NAS) forces after they attacked the patrol team on the two islands in the area.
However, the Bari Community was outraged by SSPDF spokesperson Maj Gen Lul Ruai’s remarks, and as a result, the community issued its own statement, calling the army spokesperson’s remarks discriminatory, unfounded, and irresponsible. Lul refuted these accusations.
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