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| At least 40 people were killed during the attack on a UN compound in Malakal [REUTERS} |
Peacekeepers
reprimanded over "lack of responsiveness" during deadly attack on
camp in the city of Malakal in February.
The United Nations has said it will send peacekeepers
home over a "lack of responsiveness" during a bloody attack on a
UN-run camp in South Sudan in February.
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous acknowledged on
Wednesday that an investigation had found "inadequacies" in
peacekeepers' response when gunmen in military uniforms stormed the camp in the
northeastern town of Malakal on February 17 and 18, firing on civilians and
setting shelters ablaze.
The attack on the camp, where about 48,000 people were
sheltering, left at least 40 dead and 123 wounded.
Nearly 20,000 people lost their homes after they were
torched by the attackers based on the occupants' tribal affiliation.
"There was a lack of responsiveness by some, a
lack of understanding of the rules of engagement by some," said Ladsous,
who refused to single out any individuals.
Is
South Sudan finally on its way to peace?
"I will not name names but there will be
repatriations of units and of individual officers."
At the time of the attack, the peacekeeping force was
made up of contingents from Ethiopia, India and Rwanda.
"I can assure you that there will be a follow-up
as there has been in other theaters of operation," Ladsous said.
Initial findings of an internal UN investigation found
"there was confusion with respect to command and control" and "a
lack of coordination among the various civilian and uniformed
peacekeepers" during the attack.
A UN military official in Malakal told Al Jazeera that
Ethiopian peacekeepers had abandoned their posts during the attack.
The same official said the peacekeeping contingent
from Rawanda had asked, in writing, for permission to fire their weapons as the
base came under attack, even though peacekeepers are licensed to use force to
protect civilians.
"Attackers entered in the backyard of a UN base
and proceeded to shot and kill civilians and to systematically burn down large
parts of the camp, as peacekeepers responded slowly and ineffectively,"
said Matt Wels, a senior adviser on peacekeeping at the Center for Civilians in
Conflict.
The medical aid charity Doctors without Borders (MSF)
said the UN had "failed in its duty to safeguard the people at the site
and could have averted many fatalities".
Many of those who sought shelter at the UN site in
Malakal arrived shortly after Sudan's civil war began in December 2013 after
President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar, who he had sacked
earlier that year, of plotting a coup.
Civil war broke out when soldiers from Kiir's Dinka
ethnic group disarmed and targeted troops of Machar's Nuer ethnic group. Machar
and commanders loyal to him fled, and tens of thousands of people died in the
civil war that followed.
A peace agreement signed in August collapsed and
fighting continues in many parts of the country, despite both leaders joining a
unity government two months ago.
The attack in Malakal threatens to deepen the conflict
further. Leaders of the Shilluk ethnic group, the third largest tribe in the
country who hail from Malakal, say that if they are not given their land back,
fighting could ensue.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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