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Attack on Civilians by Opposition Forces, February 2014
The UNMISS Human Rights Division has reported horrific crimes against people sheltering
in churches and the hospital in February 2014. On February 19, opposition forces killed two
people in the Christ the King Church, later returning to loot and sexually assault women. 177
During the same period, white army fighters forced entry into a Catholic church compound,
a witness said, demanded to know if there were Dinka sheltering there and threatened to
launch a RPG at the church. 178 They attacked the Malakal Teaching Hospital on February 18,
entering with guns, machetes and spears, and killed a number of people after singling
them out on the basis of their ethnicity. 179 The opposition forces returned the following day
and killed, beat and stole from people in the hospital. The medical aid agency, Médecins
Sans Frontières, reported that their staff found 14 dead bodies in the hospital on February
22, including some who appeared to have been shot in their beds. 180
UNMISS has also reported that opposition forces and white army may have killed
hundreds of civilians and destroyed and looted villages as they moved through Baliet
county, east of Malakal, on their way to or from the opposition stronghold of Nasir during
both the second and third attacks. 181
177 UNMISS “Conflict in South Sudan, A Human Rights Report”, p36.
178 Human Rights Watch interview, (name withheld), Nairobi, February 2014.
179 UNMISS “Conflict in South Sudan, A Human Rights Report”, p37.
180 “Medical Care under Fire in South Sudan”, Médecins Sans Frontières, press release, February 26, 2014.
http://www.msf.org/article/medical-care-under-fire-south-sudan.
181 UNMISS “Conflict in South Sudan, A Human Rights Report”, p36.
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