UN: ‘Targeted killings’ in South Sudan left hundreds dead last week

U.N. human rights investigators have confirmed that hundreds of civilians were killed because of their ethnicity after rebel forces seized a disputed town in South Sudan last week, the United Nations said Monday.

The U.N. Mission in South Sudan condemned what it called "the targeted killings of civilians based on their ethnic origins and nationality" in Bentiu, the capital of oil-producing Unity state, on April 15 and 16.

It also condemned the use of Radio Bentiu FM by some individuals "associated with the opposition" to broadcast hate speech, even urging "men from one community to commit vengeful sexual violence against women from another community."

According to human rights investigators from the U.N. mission, anti-government forces entered the Kali-Ballee Mosque in Bentiu on April 15, separated civilians of certain nationalities and ethnic groups and escorted them to safety while the others were killed.

More than 200 civilians were reportedly killed and more than 400 wounded at the mosque, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

At Bentiu Hospital several men, women and children from the Nuer ethnic group were killed for hiding and declining to join other Nuers who had come out to cheer the rebels as they seized the town, the U.N. mission said in a statement.

At the Catholic church and vacated U.N. World Food Program compound, rebels similarly asked people who had sought shelter to identify their ethnic group and nationality "and proceeded to target and kill several individuals," Dujarric said.

Lanzer reported in Twitter posts late Sunday that there were shocking scenes of atrocities, with "bodies of people executed" lying in the streets of Bentiu.

Thousands of people have been killed in violence in South Sudan since December, when presidential guards splintered and fought along ethnic lines. The violence later spread across the country as soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, tried to put down a rebellion led by Riek Machar, the former vice president and an ethnic Nuer.

Machar has said he wants to see the exit of Kiir, whom he accuses of acting like a dictator, while Kiir accuses Machar of launching a failed coup attempt in December 2013 that the government says sparked unrest across the country.

Toby Lanzer, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official in South Sudan, told Al Jazeera “with hate speech and violence continuing as they are, we're going to have an even greater catastrophe on our hands at the end of this year.”

“I think the saddest testament to the current situation is that we have had members of all communities, even those accused of perpetrating these crimes, fleeing to the U.N. base," he said.

“We had 5,000 civilians a week ago in our base, now we have 22,000 people. We have just one liter [33 ounces] of portable water per person for today."

The U.N. had warned of mounting evidence of ethnic violence in the world's newest nation as both government troops and rebel forces lost and gained territories in sporadic clashes. Despite a ceasefire signed earlier this year, both sides continue to trade allegations over rights violations and civilian abuses.

The U.N. mission called Monday for the atrocities to be fully investigated and for the perpetrators and their commanders to be held accountable.

Dujarric said that between April 15 and 17, the U.N. mission extracted hundreds of civilians facing threats of violence from several places in Bentiu and Rubkona, another town in Unity State, where they had sought refuge.

"Over 500 civilians, including many wounded, were extracted from the Bentiu Hospital and other places, while thousands were escorted as they walked" to the U.N. mission base in Bentiu.

Peace talks in neighboring Ethiopia have proceeded slowly.

Al Jazeera and wire services