JUBA: From a 14-month-old toddler to a 105-year old grandmother: the first names of some of the tens of thousands killed in South Sudan since civil war began a year ago were released yesterday.
With no official toll, South Sudanese civil society volunteers have spent months collecting, cross-checking and confirming the names of those killed.
“This list, although a fraction of the total loss, reflects the devastating human impact of South Sudan’s year long war in which no one has been officially counting the dead,” said Anyieth D’Awol, who is organising the “Naming Those We Lost” project.
“Peace remains elusive, mass graves dot the landscape with civilians, both young and old, bearing the brunt of the fighting.”
The International Crisis Group estimates that at least 50,000 people have been killed, while some diplomats suggest it could even be double that figure.
Fighting broke out in South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, when President Salva Kiir accused his sacked deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup.
The United Nations yesterday for the first time confirmed that “tens of thousands of South Sudanese have been killed,” with UN chief Ban Ki-moon in a statement condemning Kiir and Machar, who he said had “allowed their personal ambitions to jeapordise the future of an entire nation.”
But no official toll has been kept either by the government, rebels or the UN.
For now, the list contains 572 names, with organisers appealing people to submit the names of those they can confirm killed.
“It is a start,” D’Awol said, adding that the majority named were civilians, and most of those were young people.
Both Kiir’s forces and rebels loyal to Machar have been accused of widespread atrocities — massacres, gang rapes and child soldier recruitment — that have seen the country teeter on the brink of genocide.
Half the country’s 12 million people need aid, the UN says, including nearly two million people who fled their homes from the fighting.AFP
