UN warns of imminent “ethnic cleansing” campaign in South Sudan

Juba, December 1, 2016 (SSNA) — A United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) has warned Thursday that a campaign of ethnic cleansing is underway in South Sudan.

The chilling warning raises fears the war-ravaged young nation could witness the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

The commission sent a three-person team to South Sudan to investigate reports of ethnically targeted killings and other human rights abuses.

In their report released today, the Commission head says plans have are being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda.

“There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages,” Commission’s Chairwoman, Yasmin Sooka, told reporters.

“The stage is being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda. The stage is being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda and the international community is under an obligation to prevent it,” she warned.

Sooka said her team was in South Sudan for ten days and that civilians who have fed up with whatever happened to them, relatives, or their villages keep saying “they are ready to shed blood to get their land back.”