While regional African leaders are meeting in Kenya in an effort to broker a peace deal in South Sudan, where more than thousand people are feared dead in violence that began more than a week ago and left the country on the brink of civil war, Kenyan authorities evacuated citizens from South Sudan.
Two-hundred and thirty two Kenyans from South Sudan where evacuated to safety on Boxing Day, amongst them eyewitness of crimes against humanity. According to returning witnesses considerable crime and atrocities are committed by armed groups against civilans.
“I was working in a hotel in Bentiu on Sunday when they (she’s not clear which faction) came in shooting. I was lucky I just got shot. The women from Eritrea I was working with were raped,” a returning woman said.
This shows that the increasing violence and atrocities committed agains civilians in South Sudan is not limited to tribal affiliations only, but instead affects everyone caught in the cross fire.
With possibly few resources available to conduct airlifting evacuations abroad, the Eritrean government has asked Eritrean nationals in South Sudan to take necessary precaution until the conflict has calmed down.
Girmai Gebremariam, Eritrean Ambassador to South Sudan, already warned on the 21 December that the conflict had stretched from Juba and its surroundings to Jonglei and Unity regions, and that properties have been ransacked including that of Eritreans.
Unofficial figures state that over 5000 Eritreans live in Juba with no protection other than United Nations outposts in South Sudan, if they reach one of the bases safely.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-Gerneral Toby Lanzer tweeted that many Eritreans are among the 15.000 people seeking shelter in an United Nation compound in Bor and that he is doing all he can to keep everyone safe.
At the United Nations headquarters in New York Secretary Gerneral Ban Ki-moon emphazised that the U.N. is not able to protect every civilian in need and that peace can only be the solution to secure safety of civilans in South Sudan.
The head of the U.N. Mission in South Sudan Hilde Johnson welcomed this weeks’s Security Council resolution authorizing an increase of both peacekeepers and UN police by 5,500 and dispatch more military helicopters and assets to enhance the Mission’s capability to protect civilians.
“All peacekeepers are under the instruction to use force when civilians are under imminent threat within their capabilities; and that is an instruction that also is there for those who are protecting our camps and the civilians seeking refuge there,” Johnson said.
