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UN says to open independent high-level probe into Malakal events in South Sudan

Xinhua, March 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

The United Nations will conduct an independent high-level inquiry into its response to deadly violence breaking out at UN bases in northern South Sudan last month, a UN spokesman announced here Friday.

The two UN bodies -- the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the UN Department of Field Support (DFS) -- are convening an Independent High-Level Board of Inquiry to conduct an in-depth investigation into the UN Mission's response to clashes which broke out in the camp of civilians under their protection in Malakal on Feb. 17-18, Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"The UN Mission is also reviewing enhanced preparedness measures and contingency plans for its protection of civilian sites," Dujarric said.

A sustained armed attack, which took place on Feb. 17 at the camp in Malakal for displaced people in South Sudan, killed at least 18. The camp is managed by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Visiting Malakal a week after the incidents, Kyung-wha Kang, the UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and deputy emergency relief coordinator, said that civilians who had sought safety at the site had been attacked, killed, traumatised and displaced once more, with the entire site, including medical clinics and schools, completely and systematically burnt down and destroyed.

Also on Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that fighting in South Sudan's Western Equatoria State is forcing thousands of people to flee into the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda.

According to UNHCR spokesperson Leo Dobbs, the fighting in Western Equatoria is relatively new, having spread to the previously peaceful area in 2015. Since then, more than 11,000 people have crossed into DRC, and more than 14,000 into Uganda.

Many of the new arrivals fleeing from Western Equatoria "often walked for days, and are tired, hungry and in need of help," Dobbs said, referring to urgent needs for shelter, food, water, healthcare and security.

In the coming week, UNHCR wants to gain access to an estimated 7,000 South Sudanese refugees, mostly women and children, living in Bambouti, a hard-to-reach area of eastern CAR.

The new arrivals there have outnumbered the local population of about 1,500 people and have put a strain on food and water resources.

This has also given rise to health issues, including malaria, and diarrhoea, in a town that has just one midwife and a medical assistant, and lacks medicine and equipment. Enditem