United Nations peacekeepers failed to respond to an attack on civilians by South Sudanese government troops at the Hotel Terrain in the capital Juba in July, less than a mile from a UN compound, a UN enquiry found on Tuesday.
“During the attack, civilians were subjected to and witnessed gross human rights violations, including murder, intimidation, sexual violence and acts amounting to torture perpetrated by armed government soldiers,” the enquiry found.
The independent enquiry assessed the response by the UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNMISS, to the outbreak of several days of fighting in Juba between South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s troops and soldiers loyal to his rival Riek Machar.
“A lack of leadership on the part of key senior mission personnel culminated in a chaotic and ineffective response to the violence,” according to the executive summary of the report.
No Unified Command
The UN enquiry found that peacekeepers did not operate under a unified command, “resulting in multiple and sometimes conflicting orders to the four troop contingents from China, Ethiopia, Nepal and India.”
It said that despite multiple requests for peacekeepers to respond to the attack on Hotel Terrain, “each UNMISS contingent turned down the request, indicating their troops were fully committed.”
On two occasions Chinese peacekeepers abandoned their positions, the enquiry said.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the contributions and sacrifices made in the operation by Chinese peacekeepers, two of whom were killed, were clear.
“Chinese peacekeepers braved life-threatening dangers to carry out their duties on the frontline, defended the United Nations objectives and principles, and fulfilled their promises to multilateralism and the UN peacekeeping operations,” Hua told a regular press briefing.
She did not specifically address the finding that Chinese peacekeepers had abandoned their positions but said the United Nations and its members needed to review the situation facing peacekeepers, and increase capabilities.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked for the immediate replacement of the Kenyan UNMISS force commander, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday. UN South Sudan envoy Ellen Loj will step down at the end of November.
‘Lack of Preparedness’
Political rivalry between Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a shaky peace deal a year ago, but fighting has continued.
UN peacekeepers have been deployed in South Sudan since 2011, when the country gained independence from Sudan.
The enquiry found a “lack of preparedness, ineffective command and control and a risk-averse or ‘inward-looking’ posture resulted in a loss of trust and confidence – particularly by the local population and humanitarian agencies – in the will and skill of UNMISS military, (and) police to be proactive and show a determined posture to protect civilians under threat."
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)