United Kingdom Foreign Office Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds has condemned ‘ethnically motivated’ attacks in South Sudan, saying that not only those who actually perpetrated the violence but also those who incited it will be held accountable. 

The minister said that he ‘unreservedly’ condemns both the killings in Bentiu, which were perpetrated in a town controlled by the opposition, and in Bor, a town controlled by the government.

In a press statement, the minister pointed out that in both cases the killings “appear to have been ethnically motivated killings.”

Simmonds visited Juba last week, and was touring the Tongping IDP camp when reports of the attacks began to emerge.  

“I called on all parties to the conflict to cease hostilities immediately and end the cycle of violence.  As more information on the shocking extent of these atrocities emerges, I reiterate that call now,” he said. 

“The deliberate killing of civilians and displaced people is a clear violation of international law and these crimes will be investigated and those responsible held to account,” he said.

He referred to ‘inflammatory media statements by those in positions of influence.’

“All inflammatory media statements by those in positions of influence in South Sudan must also cease.  Not only those individuals perpetrating these atrocities, but those inciting them, will also be held accountable,” he underlined.  

Similarly, the UN in a statement Monday said, “perpetrators and their commanders shall be held accountable,” saying it was investigating killings of civilians as well as the use of radio broadcasts to incite violence and ethnic hatred.

File photo: Foreign Office Minister Mark Simmonds with Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan in London, 19 March 2013 (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

Related coverage:

UN confirms massacres in South Sudan, says FM being used for hate messages (21 Apr.)

S. Sudan minister says slain Bor civilians were ‘intolerable’, ‘rebels’ (19 Apr.)

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