Editor's Note: This op-ed authored by John Prendergast and Justine Fleischner originally appeared in The Daily Beast.
On the dusty roads of Bentiu, the capital of South Sudan's oil-rich Unity state, piles of dead bodies pulled from a local hospital, church and mosque lay baking in the hot sun. Last week, opposition forces loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar recaptured the strategic town. His undisciplined force-made up of defected ethnic Nuer soldiers and Nuer tribal militias, often referred to as White Army-quickly sought revenge for previous ethnically motivated attacks against Nuer by government forces.
In a move reminiscent of the Rwandan genocide, some of the opposition leaders took control of the local FM radio station and broadcast hate speech, encouraging the targeting of men, women, and children based on their ethnicity. The death toll is believed to be over 400. United Nations reports suggest that FM radio also was used to encourage young men to rape women from other ethnic groups.
Mass atrocities occurred last week in government-held areas as well. In Bor, the state capital of Jonglei, 200 armed men in civilian clothing stormed the U.N. base where over 5,000 civilians -mostly Nuer women and children-had sought refuge. The U.N. peacekeeping battalion of Indian soldiers fired warning shots, but failed to halt the angry mob. Over 50 civilians were killed and 100 injured.
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