UN Accused of 'Complete Failure' to Protect Civilians in South Sudan

In spite of thousands of UN peacekeepers deployed in South Sudan, brutal atrocities continue to occur in the area most affected by the civil war in the African country, according to humanitarian-aid NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders).

What's the #humanitarian situtation in #SouthSudan? Learn more here: https://t.co/RqbXiOO7vl pic.twitter.com/wqGUHoo40f

— ICRC (@ICRC) 15 декабря 2015

​South Sudan’s Unity State, a northern region with the richest oil reserves in the nation, has become the main battlefield in a civil war that started in 2013.

While the region’s population has faced violence including murder, rape, abduction, and forced cannibalism, the UN mission (Unmiss) in Unity has failed to protect local residents, according to Pete Buth, a manager of MSF’s activities in the state.

One instance of skyrocketing violence in the region was the murder of 129 children last May. The Guardian reported, citing witnesses, that “boys were castrated and left to bleed to death, girls as young as eight were gang-raped, and others were thrown alive into burning buildings.”

"It's not like this is a secret," Buth said. "They talk about the most horrendous incidents of sexual violence, and I'm sure we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg."

He said that residents of Unity State’s Leer County have been subjected to the highest levels of brutality in the entire country. Many people have been repeatedly displaced and more have been hiding in swamps for months with no food or assistance.

Despite the presence of various NGOs in Leer, the situation is far from stable, Buth added.

“We’re seeing continuing abuses and violence against civilians and a situation that is too insecure to enable proper and sustained assistance,” Buth said, commenting on the UN mission. “It is not for us to determine how to fix the situation, but it is very, very frustrating to sit on the sidelines and watch it.”

Unmiss has refused to accept responsibility for the violence in South Sudan’s Unity State.

“We underscore that the responsibility to protect civilians is primarily the responsibility of the host government, and the warring parties are directly responsible for their actions in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law,” a spokesperson for the mission told Newsweek.

South Sudan marks two years of ruinous war https://t.co/wWnch3Li6K via @AJENews pic.twitter.com/tH92GGelVG

— Al Jazeera America (@ajam) 15 декабря 2015

The civil war in South Sudan broke out in December 2013 after the country’s president accused a former vice president of planning a coup. Since then, roughly 650,000 people have fled the country, according to UN refugee agency data. Some ten thousand people have died in the ongoing conflict, BBC reported.