Medical and police officials in Juba have dismissed rumors circulated online of the discovery of beheaded civilians in the South Sudanese capital.

Police on Tuesday dismissed a report that 20 people were allegedly killed and mutilated at Mia Saba residential area as “baseless.” 

The administration of Juba Teaching Hospital, where the bodies had reportedly turned up in the morgue, also denied the report.

This follows the publishing of an article by the website South Sudan News Agency, which claimed 20 headless bodies were brought to the mortuary at Juba Teaching Hospital

Citing an anonymous source, the website claimed that a pile of dead bodies without heads and hands waited identification at the hospital since Saturday night. The website suggested that the victims were residents of Mia Saba residential area.

Dr. Wani Lolik Lado, director-general of Juba Teaching Hospital, denied the story, telling Al Masier newspaper it was not true.

Another health official, Dr. Bino Andrea, director of the emergency department at the hospital and also in charge of the mortuary, likewise denied the story.

In an interview with Radio Tamazuj, said “the hospital did not receive any dead bodies on the day that the rumors surfaced,” saying the mortuary received only one dead body of someone who had been sick and hospitalized within the hospital.   

Dr. Bino Andrea further noted that Juba Teaching Hospital mortuary does not receive any dead bodies without been recorded by police stations accompanied with legal document.

Also, police spokesman Colonel James Monday Enoka told Sudan Tribune there were no people killed in Mia Saba area as had been rumoured.

“There is no such information. There were no people killed in Mia Saba as it is being circulated,” he said.