A/HRC/43/56
Commission, “After that, I constantly lived in fear in [location concealed] so I came to Wau
. . .”136
17.
Thereafter, recurrent retaliatory attacks marked by killings, rape, abduction and the
looting and destruction of property ensued across Kuajena, Rocrocdong, Udici and Alur in
Wau (Western Bahr el Ghazal). As one witness told the Commission, “The cattle keepers
started organizing themselves in groups . . . and every two to three days, we would hear
about another incident.”137 On 1 April 2019, for instance, a deadly attack launched by cattle
keepers on a primary school sheltering internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Luo
community in Kuajena resulted in the death of at least 11 civilians. 138 Eyewitnesses
indicated that State security forces who had been deployed to protect the IDPs failed to
intervene during the attack.139 NSS officers subsequently dispatched to guard civilians
sheltering in the school allegedly tortured them and compelled them to do forced labour. 140
UNMISS and CTSAMVM patrols sent to monitor the situation were repeatedly denied
access to the school.141 Eventually, the NSS soldiers were withdrawn from the school in
August 2019. At the time, the Commission was informed that the NSS would not be
investigating the officers’ alleged misconduct. 142
18.
On 18 May 2019, cattle keepers from the Dinka community wearing blue jalabiya
launched another attack on a Luo community in Rocrocdong (Western Bahr el Ghazal)
which killed at least two individuals, including an elderly village chief. 143 During the
incident, the cattle keepers reportedly separated the men from the women and shouted
ethnic slurs.144 They proceeded to shoot the village chief in the back of his head with a
Kalashnikov rifle before burning the village tukuls and ordering the villagers to leave the
land. As they fled the scene, the cattle keepers also set the village chief’s body on fire and
looted food items, goats and cattle.145 During another similar attack in Rocrocdong, one 17year-old girl told the Commission, “The attackers did not do anything to me. However, I
saw them taking girls. I do not know how many they took [or what] happened to these girls
after they took them. I was busy running away with my children.” 146
19.
The same month, the International Organization for Migration reported that more
than 12,346 persons were displaced from the Jur River area, with 99 per cent of new
arrivals citing conflict as the reason for their entry into UN Protection of Civilians site and
other IDP collective sites.147 Thirteen per cent of these IDPs reported having housing or
property destroyed.148 Meanwhile, half of all new arrivals reported having been displaced
twice since 2013, while approximately 35 per cent indicated it was their first experience of
displacement.149
20.
When cattle keepers from the Dinka community launched another attack in
Rocrocdong on 18 June 2019, one teenage girl who escaped abduction described her
attackers as, “. . . mainly young boys wearing blue jalabiya . . . they were speaking the
136
ERN 102707 - 102717, para. 15.
ERN 103249 - 103254.
138
ERN 102546 - 102552, para. 9; ERN 102664 - 102670, para. 12-13; ERN 102632 - 102652,
para. 23.
139 ERN 102797 - 102802; ERN 102632 - 102652, paras. 24-25.
140 ERN 102872 - 102876, para. 12; ERN 102632 - 102652, paras. 21-31; and ERN 103269 - 103273.
The Commission received information that female IDPs at the site were sexually assaulted but further
investigations are needed. ERN 102699 - 102706, para. 19; ERN 102632 - 102652, paras. 25-31.
141 Confidential documents on file with the Commission
142 Confidential meeting, 1 August 2019.
143 ERN 102689 - 102698; ERN 102594 - 102600, paras. 9-13; ERN 103142 - 103145; ERN 102675 102679, para.11; ERN 102609 - 102617, para. 5.
144 ERN 102689 - 102690, paras. 10-11.
145 ERN 102689 - 102690, para. 4; ERN 102594 - 102600, paras. 9-13.
146 ERN 103137 - 103141.
147 Wau Displacement Sites: Influx from Jur River March-June 2019, IOM Displacement Tracking
Matrix, 16 July 2019, available at
https://displacement.iom.int/system/tdf/reports/20190816%20IOM%20DTM%20Jur%20River%20dis
placement%20to%20Wau%20thematic%20report_1.pdf?file=1&type=node&id=6443.
148 Ibid.
149 Ibid.
137
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