UN: Mass grave found in South Sudan
Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya
U.N. investigators discovered a mass grave in a rebel-held city in South Sudan, the United Nations said Tuesday, as a possible opening occurred for negotiations to avert civil war in the world’s newest country where ethnic violence has erupted.
In New York, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to beef up its peacekeeping force in South Sudan. It condemned targeted violence against civilians and ethnic communities and called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities and the immediate opening of a dialogue.”
The government, meanwhile, announced that its military forces had taken back another key city, Bor, from the rebels who held it over the past week.
The bodies were found in the town of Bentiu in oil-rich Unity state: one grave with 14 bodies and a site nearby with 20 bodies, said U.N. human-rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.
The government minister of information, Michael Makuei Lueth, said Bentiu is under the control of rebels loyal to the country’s former vice president, Riek Machar, indicating they were responsible for the killings.
The dead in Bentiu reportedly were ethnic Dinka who belonged to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, said Shamdasani, referring to government military forces.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir is Dinka, the country’s largest ethnic group, while Machar is Nuer, the second-largest ethnic group.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on the phone Tuesday with Machar, who said he told Kerry he is ready for talks with Kiir, likely to take place in Ethiopia.