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On Thursday, Sudan called for a probe into the “assassination” of Sudanese nationals in an oil town in South Sudan, where the UN has in the past accused rebels of killing several hundred civilians. The official SUNA news agency, in an SMS alert, said “The foreign ministry condemns assassination of the Sudanese nationals in Bentiu and calls for urgent investigation”.
On Monday, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) had said that citizens of both Sudan, some from the Darfur region, and South Sudan were murdered in “targeted killings” after the rebels tooks control of Bentiu, capital of the oil-rich South Sudanese Unity state, from the government last week. UNMISS reported that “more than 200 civilians were reportedly killed and over 400 wounded” in the city’s main mosque. It added that civilians, including children, were killed in a church, an abandoned U.N. World Food Program compound, and a hospital. In a statement, the UN said that the rebels “searched a number of places where hundreds of South Sudanese and foreign civilians had taken refuge, and killed hundreds of the civilians after determining their ethnicity or nationality”.
In Khartoum, spokesman for Sudan’s Foreign Ministry Abubakr al-Siddiq said that it was not clear on how many victims were Sudanese, saying “let us say thousands”, before adding that Khartoum is in constant contact with the UN regarding the incident. Last December, the UN had called for a probe into one of the worst atrocities in South Sudan ever since violence had erupted in the country. Government forces have been fighting rebels loyal to dismissed Vice President Riek Machar. The rebels have launched a new offensive campaign targeting oil fields this month.
The conflict involves an ethnic dimension as well, pitting militia forces hailing from Machar’s Nuer against President Salva Kiir’s Dinka people. It has been less than three years since South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan. Western governments have praised Sudan’s efforts to bring peace and support regional efforts in South Sudan. In early April, Kiir visited Khartoum for talks with counterpart President Omar al-Bashir.
