JUBA
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) issued a report on Friday in which it asserted that at least 353 civilians had been killed in attacks in the northern town of Bentiu and the eastern city of Bor last April and that the culprits had never been held accountable.
According to the report, neither of South Sudan's warring camps – the government nor the heavily armed opposition – have held the perpetrators of the April attacks to account.
The UN report detailed the circumstances surrounding the attacks, which are considered among the worst since the war broke out in late 2013 between President Salva Kiir and his sacked vice-president – now rebel leader – Riek Machar.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that hundreds of civilians were targeted and killed by the SPLA/IO [Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition] on April 14, 2014 in Bentiu," the report read.
"At least 19 civilians were killed at Bentiu Civil Hospital, and approximately 287 civilians were killed at the mosque," it added.
"Two days later, on April 17, 2014, an angry mob attacked the UNMISS base in Bor, where thousands of internally displaced persons were seeking protection, killing at least 47 civilians," according to the report.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 in line with a 2005 peace treaty that ended Africa's longest-ever civil war.