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U.N. Security Council Authorizes More Peacekeeping Troops for South Sudan Political Fight in South Sudan Targets Civilians
(about 3 hours later)
JUBA, South Sudan — The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday voted to nearly double its peacekeeping contingent force in South Sudan, hoping that a rapid influx of additional international soldiers would help quell the violence threatening to tear the young nation apart. JUBA, South Sudan — The security forces went house to house, rounding up civilians by the dozens and binding the wrists of some with wire, survivors said. Some were summarily shot in the street, they said, while others were hauled off to crowded cells. Bodies of the executed were tossed into shallow graves, one recalled. Another jail where civilians had been taken reeked of death, a witness said.
With tens of thousands of civilians in the country seeking refuge at United Nations compounds, some of which have come under direct threat or attack by armed forces as well, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the move. It will add about 6,000 international troops and police officers to the more than 7,600 peacekeeping forces already on the ground in the nation. “We thought that the war was fought between the soldiers,” said Peter Nhial, 30, one of many in a crowd of desperate people to describe attacks on civilians.
“We have reports of horrific attacks,” Mr. Ban said after the Security Council vote. “Tens of thousands have fled their homes,” he said, adding that “innocent civilians are being targeted because of their ethnicity.” Little more than a week after political tensions between South Sudan’s leaders erupted into clashes in the streets of the capital, the crisis has broadened into a societal conflict in which longstanding ethnic divisions are fueling the violence and civilians are often the targets, not accidental victims, of the fighting.
Mr. Ban raised the prospect that targeted attacks against civilians or United Nations personnel could constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity. But he warned that “this is a political crisis which requires a peaceful, political solution” involving the nation’s clashing leaders. On Tuesday, the top United Nations human rights official, Navi Pillay, expressed deep concern about “the serious and growing human rights violations” taking place in the country, reporting the discovery of at least one mass grave and the arrests of hundreds of civilians in searches of homes and hotels in the capital of Juba and elsewhere.
The vote came hours after the top human rights official at the United Nations, Navi Pillay, expressed deep concern about the escalating conflict in South Sudan, reporting the discovery of at least one mass grave in recent days and the arrests of hundreds of civilians in searches of homes and hotels in the capital of Juba and elsewhere. “Mass extrajudicial killings, the targeting of individuals on the basis of their ethnicity and arbitrary detentions have been documented in recent days,” she said in a statement. “We have discovered a mass grave” in one state, she added, “and there are reportedly at least two other mass graves in Juba.”
The statement by Ms. Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for human rights, added a new level of urgency to the crisis in South Sudan, a fledgling nation that has moved closer to civil war in the past week, fueled by political rivalries that have stoked longstanding ethnic divisions. Hours later, the United Nations Security Council voted to nearly double its peacekeeping force in South Sudan, hoping that a rapid influx of international forces would help quell the violence threatening to tear the young nation apart.
Hundreds of people, and possibly many more, have been killed in more than a week of clashes and confusion around the country. But even as it moved to add nearly 6,000 international troops and police officers to the more than 7,600 peacekeeping forces already on the ground in South Sudan, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, soberly warned that it might not be enough.
In a statement, Ms. Pillay said, “Mass extrajudicial killings, the targeting of individuals on the basis of their ethnicity and arbitrary detentions have been documented in recent days.” “Even with additional capabilities, we will not be able to protect every civilian in need in South Sudan,” Mr. Ban said.
The statement said officials had “discovered a mass grave in Bentiu, in Unity State, and there are reportedly at least two other mass graves in Juba.” It was the first time that the United Nations had reported the existence of mass graves. “We have reports of horrific attacks,” he said, asserting that the attacks on civilians could constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity. “Innocent civilians are being targeted because of their ethnicity. This is a grave violation of human rights, which could fuel a spiral of civil unrest across the country.”
Ms. Pillay expressed “serious concern about the safety of those who have been arrested and are being held in unknown locations, including several hundred civilians who were reportedly arrested during house-to-house searches and from various hotels in Juba.” South Sudan was born in 2011 after years of international diplomacy as a way of ending decades of conflict with Sudan. Donor nations like the United States have spent billions of dollars trying to turn one of the poorest nations in the world into a viable state, but the country has long been strained by deep internal divisions.
It took decades of fighting, negotiation and diplomacy to forge the nation of South Sudan, but little more than a week of violent clashes and political brinkmanship to push it to the precipice. The latest conflict began last week after President Salva Kiir accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, of trying to stage a coup. Skirmishes rooted in politics then spiraled with shocking speed into attacks based on ethnicity, victims said. Mr. Kiir is a member of the Dinka ethnic group, the country’s largest. Mr. Machar is a Nuer.
South Sudan was born in the summer of 2011 with great hope and optimism, cheered on by global powers like the United States that helped shepherd it into existence. The new nation was carved out of Sudan to end one of Africa’s longest and costliest civil wars. The mistrust between the two groups has laid bare how much of the fledging nation’s cohesion was defined by opposition to the Sudanese government in Khartoum, rather than a broad sense of unity and national identity.
But the rivalry between two of South Sudan’s political leaders, President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar, along with the divisions between their ethnic groups, threatens what little cohesion holds the state together. Survivors at a displaced-persons camp in a United Nations compound in Juba spoke of mass arrests and impromptu language tests being given by security forces to determine which ethnic group people came from — an exchange they said could determine life or death.
As diplomats scrambled to get South Sudan’s colliding leaders to sit down for talks, Mr. Kiir’s government warned on Monday that it would march on a pair of strategic cities it had lost to opposing forces. One, Bentiu, lies in a state that is central to South Sudan’s oil production, a linchpin of the economy and the country’s hopes for future development. The other city, Bor, is home to a United Nations base where an estimated 17,000 people have taken shelter from thousands of encroaching militiamen. Stephen Bol, part of an organizing committee at the camp, said that boys who had left the compound looking for food had disappeared, and that at least 2,000 people, including relatives of the people huddled here, were unaccounted for.
On Tuesday, the South Sudanese government said that it had retaken Bor. Col. Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the South Sudanese military, said that government forces were now “in full control” of the city, adding that there were casualties but that he did not yet know the full extent of them. His assertions could not be immediately confirmed independently. “We don’t know whether they are alive or they have been killed,” he said.
The fighting in South Sudan erupted last week in the capital after what Mr. Kiir described as an attempted coup by forces loyal to Mr. Machar, but it quickly spread to other parts of the country. Last week, United Nations officials said that 2,000 armed youths had overrun a United Nations base in the town of Akobo, killing at least 11 civilians sheltering there and two peacekeepers trying to protect them. An additional 20,000 civilians have crammed into the two United Nations compounds in Juba, frightened of arrest or attacks by state security forces if they left. Majang Riek, 49, showing the deep gashes slashed into his wrists and forearms where he said he was bound with wire, described being hauled off to jail with more than 70 others, where he was beaten with rifle butts.
As the situation deteriorated, three American aircraft flying into South Sudan to evacuate American citizens in Bor were attacked on Saturday morning and forced to turn back. Four Navy Seals were wounded, one seriously. Deng Wang, 34, had a white bandage on top of his head where he said that he had been struck with a machete, and a deep gouge in his forehead that he said came from the tip of a rifle. Soldiers came to his home last week and arrested him, tying his hands and taking him with about 200 other members of his ethnic group, the Nuer. His house was set on fire, he said, killing one of his small children.
On Monday, the Pentagon said it was stepping up its planning to evacuate Americans and protect those who remain in South Sudan. About 150 Marines and six transport aircraft are being sent from Spain to Djibouti, where an emergency force was created in the wake of the deadly attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. Of the 200 people he was held with, fewer than 10 had survived, he said. Small groups were led away, followed by gunshots. Mr. Wang said he saw several graves with “dead bodies, yes, so many.” He credited his survival to the fact that he speaks Dinka and did not have any of the markings on his face associated with the Nuer ethnic group.
The move was hinted at in a letter President Obama sent to congressional leaders on Sunday in which he said that he might take “further action” to support American citizens and interests in the strife-ridden region. Outside the capital, members of Mr. Kiir’s Dinka ethnic group have sought United Nations protection from attacks. In the town of Akobo, armed Nuer youth overran a United Nations base, killing Dinka civilians who were taking shelter there along with two of the peacekeepers trying to protect them. United Nations officials have said that Dinka workers have been killed at oil facilities. And a mass grave in the city of Bentiu, which Ms. Pillay cited, is believed to contain the bodies of Dinka soldiers.
The United States also put forward a Security Council resolution on Monday to approve Mr. Ban’s plea for more international peacekeepers. There are currently more than 7,600 United Nations military personnel and police officers in the country, and the measure would increase that number to more than 13,000, drawn from other peacekeeping missions already deployed on the continent in places like Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo. French and American diplomats said there was widespread support for Mr. Ban’s recommendations and that the resolution would come up for a vote on Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday, the South Sudanese government said that it had retaken Bor, a city where an estimated 17,000 people have sought refuge at a United Nations compound. Col. Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the South Sudanese military, said that government forces were now “in full control” of the city, adding that there were casualties, but that he did not yet know the full extent of them. His assertions could not be confirmed.
“The leaders of South Sudan face a stark choice,” said Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the United Nations. “They can return to the political dialogue and spirit of cooperation that helped establish South Sudan, or they can destroy those hard-fought gains and tear apart their newborn nation.” Hilde Johnson, head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, told reporters in Juba on Tuesday that the situation remained a struggle for political power, with ethnic violence an outgrowth rather than the root cause. But that did not lessen the danger that it could degenerate further.
Diplomats from Africa, the United States and elsewhere have tried to bring the warring parties to the table, hoping to cobble together a cease-fire before the cycle of violence gathers momentum and leads to a protracted civil war. “We have seen the signs of this already and we do not want to see any development of this nature taking hold in this country, and we have the historical analogies fresh in our minds,” Ms. Johnson said, in a seeming reference to conflicts in Bosnia or Rwanda.
Even before its birth as an independent nation, South Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, had long been strained by political and ethnic tensions that have threatened to undermine it. In the displaced-persons camp in Juba, where hungry people crowded under the meager shade offered by tiny shrubs, small tents and slapdash shelters, Mr. Wang said he had searched in vain among thousands for his wife and four other children.
The latest political conflict surfaced when the president, Mr. Kiir, summarily fired his entire cabinet in July, including Mr. Machar. Some opponents have dismissed his allegations of a coup attempt last week as a mere pretext to crack down on the political opposition. Critics of Mr. Machar, by contrast, see him as an opportunist who switched sides during the civil war against Sudan to gain advantage for himself, before becoming vice president when South Sudan seceded in 2011. “I don’t know if they’re still alive,” he said.
Both sides have expressed a willingness to negotiate, but Mr. Machar has insisted that he will go to the negotiating table only when his political allies who have been detained are released. Mr. Kiir has insisted that he enter negotiations without preconditions.

Isma’il Kushkush contributed reporting from Khartoum, Sudan, and Somini Sengupta from Los Angeles.

Nick Kulish reported from Juba, South Sudan, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt in Washington and Somini Sengupta in Los Angeles.