South Sudan: Survivors describe killings, mass displacement and terror amid fighting in Western Equatoria

Clashes that broke out between local groups allied with forces affiliated with the South Sudanese government's Popular Defense Forces (SSPDF), on the one hand, and the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition ( SPLA-IO), on the other, have focused on the Tambura County area.

In the first detailed analysis of the human rights situation in this conflict, Amnesty International documents possible war crimes and other rights violations committed by all warring parties against members of the Azande and Balanda communities, who previously lived in harmony and had been celebrating mixed marriages for generations.

“Political figures stoked ethnic hatred and mobilized youth to fight, causing a trail of death, destruction and division. The testimonies we have collected speak of unimaginable violence, including the killing of fleeing civilians and burned and mutilated corpses," said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International's Director for Eastern and Southern Africa.

“The fact that not only local groups but also fighters affiliated with government and opposition forces participated in the attacks indicates that this is much more than intercommunal violence.”

Amnesty International interviewed 76 people (internally displaced population, humanitarian personnel, public officials, activists and others). Of these, 50 were survivors of the Azande, Balanda and mixed ethnic groups who had had to flee and took refuge in the towns of Wau, Yambio and Tambura, the previous epicenter of violence.

Kidnappings, unlawful homicides and other civil damages

In their chilling accounts, survivors recount their flight from indiscriminate shootings that lasted for hours as well as burning down entire neighborhoods. Thirteen witnesses, some of whom had been held hostage for brief periods, recounted episodes in which combatants from both sides had summarily executed civilians by shooting or slitting their throats. Deliberately attacking civilians and killing prisoners are war crimes.

Stray bullets hit homes and shelters for internally displaced people, injuring civilians, including a 10-year-old girl whose case Amnesty International documented. Many civilians were killed trying to flee for safety or after coming out of hiding to find food or better shelter. The vast majority of the internally displaced people we interviewed reported losing a loved one and, in some cases, multiple family members to violence.

Many told that in their flight they had seen the corpses of civilians that they carried to be buried or along the road. Several survivors spoke of relatives who had been missing for months or presumed dead. According to local government data, some 300 people were victims of homicide.

A 20-year-old Balanda woman recounted how three armed men wearing masks and speaking the Zande language came to her home in Tambura at night on 2 September and killed her 27-year-old husband in the presence of she and her three-year-old daughter. “My husband, my daughter and I were sleeping… One of them came and took my husband by force… They forced him to sit by the door and shot him… in front of me. My husband collapsed," the woman told Amnesty International.

A 41-year-old Zande woman said she and an older sister had been captured in the bush in September as they tried to flee from Tambura to Ezo after their brother was shot dead. Armed men captured them along with other civilians, killing several.

“They told us to sit down and said they were going to slash us open like a pumpkin,” he said. She recounted that the fighters had tied their hands behind her back and her 18-month-old son had been placed next to her. One of the fighters, he explained, "put his leg on [my sister's] head and cut her neck with a knife." She and her son were spared when pro-Zande forces arrived and began shooting at the men holding them captive.

According to a witness, fighters burned her brother's body after beheading him in Mupoi in August; weeks before, her husband and three of her children had been kidnapped and murdered. Another woman said she heard the cries of her two brothers pleading for her life as she hid nearby, and that shortly after she saw their stabbed corpses, both with a mutilated ear. “If I think about what they did to my brothers I can't sleep at night […] I'm very scared. Every time I notice something approaching, I jump,” said the 42-year-old woman about what happened in June in Nabiapai.

Seven witnesses said they had seen what appeared to be the disemboweled corpse of a pregnant woman next to the lifeless fetus one or more times. Eight survivors lamented that the bodies of their loved ones had been left decomposing without being buried, in some cases because armed men appeared to be waiting to attack whoever returned.

According to survivors, some elderly people with reduced mobility were left behind and killed. A witness said he saw gunmen beat a mentally ill woman to death and set her body on fire.

Loot and destruction

Most of the people interviewed said that their homes had been looted or burned down and that they had not been able to harvest their crops due to the prevailing insecurity, which had had serious repercussions for many who lived from agriculture. Satellite images analyzed by Amnesty International show widespread destruction or damage to structures between June and October throughout the county, including the Tambura and Mupoi areas and the vicinity of Source Yubu.

Armed men also raided and looted health centers, depriving the civilian population of vital care and in violation of international law. A senior humanitarian aid official told Amnesty International that as of November 13 of the 20 medical centers in Tambura County had been vandalized and rendered useless, with the others “barely operating”.

Another aid worker said only 8 of the county's 53 schools were open at the time of his interview in November. Virtually all of the displaced people with school-age children who spoke to Amnesty International said that they had not been to school for months.

The combatants temporarily occupied the Renzi school in the town of Tambura. © Amnesty International.

According to the account of seven witnesses to Amnesty International, combatants affiliated with the SSPDF, who are affiliated with the Azande ethnic group, used a primary school in Tambura as their headquarters for several weeks, until at the end of October they left under duress on charges of the government. The use of schools by armed actors is contrary to the universal Safe Schools Declaration, which the South Sudanese government adhered to in 2015, and undermines international humanitarian and human rights law.

Displacement and humanitarian crisis

According to official data verified by the UN, the fighting caused the displacement of more than 80,000 people. Some moved to makeshift sites within Tambura, including a church and a camp protected by UN peacekeepers visited by Amnesty International. Others traveled south to the state capital, Yambio, or north to Wau in the western state of Bahr el Ghazal, often taking 3-10 days to walk.

Families were separated as members fled in different directions, and some had still not been able to reunite after several months. They traveled with only their clothes on their backs, and many went days without eating in the forest. One woman said her 15-year-old daughter had given birth en route, and another said her 3-year-old daughter had died of medical complications during the journey.

Displaced people both in camps and in host communities explained that they had no food or medicine and that their shelter conditions were deplorable, as Amnesty International's research team was able to verify. According to the vast majority, either they had not received humanitarian aid or they had only received a batch of basic food for 15 days.

“My son is at home very sick and there is no money to treat him […] We have no food. We don't even have money for rent. We are going to starve to death,” said a 42-year-old woman who in July had to move from the outskirts of Tambura to Yambio with seven of her children.

According to survivors, despite the announcement that the fighting had ended, they were afraid of the fighters who remained in the area and the politicians who had fueled enmity between ethnic communities. In addition, they said that they had nowhere to return as their houses, crops and other assets had been destroyed. Many of these people insisted that they needed urgent help, including psychosocial support.

“The government must expedite reconstruction efforts, facilitate assistance and provision of essential services to displaced persons, establish the necessary conditions for their safe, voluntary, and sustainable return, and guarantee that those responsible for war crimes and other violations human rights are held accountable for their actions”, stated Deprose Muchena.

“The violence in Western Equatoria is yet another stark reminder of the need for a comprehensive accountability process, including telling the truth, undertaking reforms, offering reparations and working with the African Union Commission to establish of a Hybrid Court for South Sudan. In the meantime, the UN Security Council must maintain its arms embargo to prevent weapons from reaching warring parties."

Additional information

The recent violence in Western Equatoria stems from the assignment of this state to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) in May 2020 as part of the power-sharing agreement between the parties that signed the peace treaty in 2018. The subsequent appointment of a governor by First Vice President Riek Machar outraged key figures in Azande community politics.

Despite the establishment of a transitional government of national unity in early 2020, violence persists in several areas of South Sudan, drawing political parties into the conflict and driving local groups affiliated with them to clash with each other . Fundamental provisions of the peace agreement, including some relating to accountability and security, remain unfulfilled.