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South Sudanese committed 'crimes against humanity' | South Sudanese committed 'crimes against humanity' |
(35 minutes later) | |
Both sides in South Sudan's conflict have committed crimes against humanity, including mass killings, sexual slavery and gang-rape, a UN report says. | Both sides in South Sudan's conflict have committed crimes against humanity, including mass killings, sexual slavery and gang-rape, a UN report says. |
The "widespread and systematic" atrocities were carried out in homes, hospitals, mosques, churches and UN compounds, it added. | The "widespread and systematic" atrocities were carried out in homes, hospitals, mosques, churches and UN compounds, it added. |
The report called for those responsible to be held accountable. | The report called for those responsible to be held accountable. |
Fighting between government and rebel forces broke out in December, leaving more than a million homeless. | Fighting between government and rebel forces broke out in December, leaving more than a million homeless. |
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir accused his sacked deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup. | |
Mr Machar denied the allegation, but then marshalled a rebel army to fight the government. | |
The battle assumed ethnic overtones, with Mr Machar relying heavily on fighters from his Nuer ethnic group and Mr Kiir from his Dinka community. | |
Mr Machar is due to arrive shortly in Ethiopia for talks with Mr Kiir, rebel spokesman James Gatdet Dak said, Reuters news agency reports. | |
The two leaders are due to meet on Friday - their first contact since the conflict erupted. | |
Mr Kiir and Mr Machar have come under intense diplomatic pressure from the UN and US to end the conflict. | |
Regional mediators have been trying to broker a peace deal between the two sides in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. | |
They agreed that a truce - described as "30 days of tranquillity" - would come into effect on Wednesday in an effort to re-establish an ineffective ceasefire deal that was signed in January. | |
The BBC's Alastair Leithead in the capital, Juba, says the report by the UN mission in South Sudan is a hard-hitting catalogue of atrocities, based on interviews with 900 people. | |
It describes how, when the conflict erupted, security forces in Juba went from house to house rounding up and killing men from a particular ethnic group. | |
Tit-for-tat revenge attacks then spread across the country, the report says. | |
There is page after page outlining mass killings, rapes and gang-rapes and the targeting of civilians on ethnic grounds, our correspondent adds. | |
The UN has about 8,500 peacekeepers in South Sudan, which became the world's newest state after seceding from Sudan in 2011. | |
However, they have struggled to contain the conflict, and the government has accused the UN mission of siding with the rebels. | |
It denies the allegation. |
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