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Al-Ahed Telegram

AI: S. Sudan Forces Suffocated Dozens, Dumped Bodies in Open Pits

AI: S. Sudan Forces Suffocated Dozens, Dumped Bodies in Open Pits
folder_openSudan access_time8 years ago
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Local Editor

The Amnesty International released a report accusing South Sudanese government forces of deliberately suffocating more than 60 men and boys who were detained in a shipping container before dumping their bodies in an open field in Leer town, Unity State.

AI: S. Sudan Forces Suffocated Dozens, Dumped Bodies in Open Pits

According to the report the organization's researchers recently visited the grounds of the Comboni Catholic Church where the October 2015 killings took place. They also visited the site, about one kilometer from Leer town, where the bodies were dumped and found the remains of many broken skeletons still strewn across the ground.

As per the report the researchers interviewed more than 42 witnesses, including 23 people who said they saw the men and boys being forced into a shipping container and later saw their dead bodies either being removed or at a mass burial site.

According to witnesses, between 20 and 23 October 2015, government soldiers arbitrarily arrested dozens of men and boys in Luale village and Leer town. They then forced them, with their hands tied behind their backs, into one or more shipping containers located at the Comboni Catholic Church.

Witnesses described hearing the detainees crying and screaming in distress and banging on the walls of the shipping container, which they said had no windows or other form of ventilation.

They said that civilian and military officials had direct knowledge that the detainees were in distress and dying but did nothing to help them. One witness said that she saw the then area commander order soldiers to open the container and remove the bodies of four dead men and then close the container again on the remaining detainees who were still alive inside.

The report by the human rights' watch shows that despite evidence of war crimes no steps had been taken to hold perpetrators to account or to provide reparations, including compensation to relatives of the deceased for the loss of their loved ones.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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