South Sudan massacre warnings went unheeded, Amnesty says

South Sudanese authorities and UN peacekeepers failed to act on warnings before a March massacre that killed more than 200 people in Abiemnom County, Amnesty International said Thursday.

Amnesty said at least 1,000 armed men from the Nuer ethnic group launched a four-hour assault on March 1 near the Sudanese border, killing more than 200 people, including children, and injuring many others.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International's regional director for East and Southern Africa, called it “one of South Sudan's largest documented massacres since 2020”.

The rights group said its investigation found that South Sudanese authorities and the UN Mission in South Sudan had warnings at least two weeks in advance that a nearby community was preparing weapons and fighters to seek revenge for an earlier attack.

Amnesty said UNMISS acknowledged that tensions had been high since mid-February and that about 1,000 people had sought shelter at its temporary base on the outskirts of Abiemnom in the 48 hours before the attack.

Chagutah said the government and UNMISS had “sufficient information and time to take more effective preventive action” and that their failure to take stronger action cost lives.

Amnesty said seven people were killed outside the rear gates of the UNMISS base, where residents had fled for protection. Witnesses told the group that attackers shot residents in homes and courtyards and fired on people fleeing or seeking shelter. Some victims were shot at close range after being captured or wounded, Amnesty said.

Witnesses also said attackers burned homes and the market, looted property and ransacked part of the local hospital, stealing medical supplies and mattresses. Amnesty said most bodies were buried in two mass graves on the outskirts of the town.

Satellite imagery reviewed by Amnesty showed more than 230 structures destroyed by fire. Amnesty said the massacre forced the entire population to flee Abiemnom.

The rights group called on the government and UNMISS to investigate the attack and hold those responsible criminally accountable.