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to justify the attack saying that Nuer in the camp included rebels and that they provoked
the attack by “intolerably” celebrating an opposition attack on Bentiu earlier that week. 135
This was the second attack on an UNMISS compound in Jonglei state. On the afternoon of
December 19 a group of armed Nuer civilians and unarmed civilians including women and
children, with some members of security forces interspersed, revenged the Juba killings by
attacking the UN base in Akobo, an area which was then controlled by opposition forces.
After overrunning the compound entirely, the Nuer gunmen moved through the small base
looking for and shooting Dinka, killing over 20 people. Two UNMISS peacekeepers were
also killed during the attack that caused enormous anger amongst many Dinka. One Dinka
man, a humanitarian, who sought sanctuary in the UN base described how the attackers,
including a man in police uniform, told peacekeepers and other internationals to sit on the
ground and then shot and killed Dinka. 136 He said he was lucky to be alive:
There was no way to escape, the compound was very small. I was inside.
Many people were killed in my presence. I got confused I hid with the
Indians (peacekeepers) in a small place. They (the attackers) called us out,
there was no way to run (but) someone saved my life by saying this man is
not Dinka, he is an Equatorian (from one of South Sudan’s three most
southern states). …the rest of the youth they were dancing, shouting that
they have killed all the Dinka.
135 “South Sudan Minister says slain Bor civilians were “intolerable”. Radio Tamazuj website, April 19, 2014,
https://radiotamazuj.org/en/article/s-sudan-minister-says-slain-bor-civilians-were-%E2%80%98intolerable%E2%80%99-
%E2%80%98rebels%E2%80%99 (accessed June 3, 2014).
136 Human Rights Watch telephone interview, (name withheld) Juba, January 16, 2014.
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