Visiting South Sudan, the United Nations envoy on genocide prevention on Friday warned that the African country was at risk of plunging into “an outright ethnic war” and of genocide being committed.
“I am dismayed to report that what I have seen and heard here has confirmed my concerns that there is a strong risk of violence escalating along ethnic lines, with the potential for genocide,” Adama Dieng, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, told reporters in Juba, the nation’s capital.
“Throughout the week, conversations with all actors have confirmed that what began as a political conflict has transformed into what could become an outright ethnic war,” he added, according to a UN statement.
He said that during the course of this week, he has seen that there is extreme polarization between some tribal groups, which has increased in certain places since the outbreak of violence in July.
Inflammatory rhetoric, stereotyping and name calling have been accompanied by targeted killings and rape of members of particular ethnic groups, and by violent attacks against individuals or communities on the basis of their perceived political affiliation, and the media, including social media, are being used to spread hatred and encourage ethnic polarization, and letters threatening specific groups have surfaced in the last month, he said.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011. But war broke out in 2013 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those of former Vice-President Riek Machar. The political rivals signed a peace agreement in August 2015 to formally end their differences. But in early July this year, close to the fifth anniversary of the country’s independence, the youngest nation was plunged into fresh violence due to clashes between the two rival forces.
