South Sudan rebels slaughter 'hundreds' in ethnic massacres

Amanda Weyler, a UN aid worker, described “nightmarish scenes” with “scores of bodies” still scattered on the streets after visiting Monday.

Some rebels took to the local radio to “broadcast hate messages declaring that certain ethnic groups should not stay in Bentiu, and even calling on men from one community to commit vengeful sexual violence against women from another community,” the statement added.

Bentiu is the first major settlement to have been retaken in a renewed offensive by Mr Machar’s forces, with the rebels yesterday boasting of further villages they had captured in Unity state.

The killings were described as among the most devastating in the more than four months of on-off fighting in the world’s newest nation, where civil war between politicians representing rival tribes flared in December.

“These atrocities must be fully investigated and the perpetrators and their commanders shall be held accountable”, said Raisedon Zenenga, the officer commanding Unmiss.

Fighters from his Nuer tribe have been attacking the Dinkas of Salva Kiir, the president, with whom Mr Machar fell out last year. Mr Machar and his so-called SPLA in opposition have said he wants Mr Kiir to stand down, accusing him of becoming dictatorial.

“When SPLA in Opposition forces captured Bentiu on April 15 and 16, they searched a number of places where hundreds of South Sudanese and foreign civilians had taken refuge and killed hundreds of the civilians after determining their ethnicity or nationality,” the statement said.

Similar killings were reported at a Catholic church nearby and at the World Food Programme compound.

Of those that were taken to Bentiu Hospital, “several Nuer men, women and children were killed for hiding and declining to join other Nuers who had gone out to cheer the SPLA in opposition forces as they entered the town.”

The UN Security Council said that attack may “constitute a war crime”.