Amnesty says UN peacekeepers and South Sudanese authorities failed to act on warnings before Abiemnom attack

Amnesty International said in a report published on 12 November that UN peacekeepers and South Sudanese authorities failed to act on warnings before an attack in Abiemnom that killed more than 200 people. Abiemnom is a remote area near the border with Sudan.

The attack took place on 1 March. Amnesty reported that between 1,000 and 1,500 armed men from neighbouring Mayom County shot residents, burned homes and looted part of the hospital in the town. According to the report, satellite images show more than 230 structures were burned, and most of the victims were buried in two mass graves.

Authorities put the death toll at more than 200. They gave the breakdown as 130 town residents, 76 security personnel and seven foreign nationals.

Amnesty said the UN mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, knew an attack on Abiemnom was likely. However, it did not reinforce its roughly three dozen peacekeepers in the town until after the 1 March assault. Amnesty's central concern is the gap between that warning and the mission's response.

UNMISS has described its actions differently. Spokesperson Priyanka Chowdhury said the mission protected and treated about 2,500 people who were sheltering at a protected area set up in anticipation of the attack. After the assault, UNMISS sent 40 more police to Abiemnom.

The UN Security Council, which sets the mission's mandate, or formal authorisation, renewed UNMISS's mandate in April. The council also cut the mission's authorised troop ceiling, the maximum number of troops it may deploy, from 17,000 to 12,000.

Amnesty has called for an independent investigation into the Abiemnom killings and a separate review of the peacekeepers' response. South Sudanese authorities did not respond to two letters from Amnesty asking for information and for their responses to the report's preliminary findings.

South Sudan is due to hold elections on 22 December.