South Sudan: Government forces suffocated own citizens in 2015

Amnesty International has condemned the 2015 suffocation of men and boys, by South Sudanese forces, on the grounds of a parish belonging to Comboni missionaries. 

According to a press release made available to Vatican Radio by Amnesty international, South Sudanese government forces deliberately suffocated more than 60 men and boys who were detained in a shipping container before dumping their bodies in an open field in Leer town, Unity State, according to new evidence gathered by Amnesty International. 

The organisation’s researchers recently visited the grounds of the Comboni Catholic Church where the October 2015 killings took place. They also visited the site, about one kilometre from Leer town, where the bodies were dumped. They found the remains of many broken skeletons still strewn across the ground. The findings are contained in a new briefing South Sudan: ‘Their Voices Stopped’: Mass Killing in a Shipping Container in Leer.

According to witnesses, between 20 and 23 October 2015, government soldiers arbitrarily arrested dozens of men and boys in Luale village and Leer town. They then forced them, with their hands tied behind their backs, into one or more shipping containers located at the Comboni Catholic Church.

By the following morning, all but one of the remaining detainees had died. One witness told Amnesty International researchers.

(Amnesty International)