00:00South Sudan and UN peacekeepers are being accused of failing to act on warnings of a massacre that killed more
00:06than 200 people in March.
00:08Amnesty International said authorities and the UN mission in South Sudan received warnings two weeks before the attack
00:14that armed Memnu are preparing to strike Abiemon County near the Sudanese border.
00:20The RAD group says at least 1,000 fighters from the Nuer ethnic group launched a four-hour assault on
00:25March 1,
00:26killing more than 200 people, including children, and injuring many others.
00:30They told us that two weeks prior to the attack, they were getting warnings from their relatives in Mayom town,
00:39where the attackers hailed from, that men were gathering arms, that they were given ammunition,
00:45and that they were preparing for an attack.
00:48So two weeks prior to the attack happening, people in Abiemon County,
00:53the location of where the massacre happened, were already sleeping around the peacekeeping mission's base for protection at night.
01:02The group said homes and the local market were burned, property was looted,
01:08and more than 230 structures were destroyed by fire.
01:13Most of the bodies were buried in two massacres while the entire population was forced to flee.
01:18What we question strongly is the fact that UNMES sent around 40 additional peacekeepers to the base
01:31on the day of the attack, in the afternoon, so after the attack.
01:35So apparently these forces were available.
01:39UNMES had two weeks of prior knowledge.
01:42So we're asking why were these additional forces not sent before the attack.
01:48Amnesty is now calling for investigations by the South Sudanese government and the UNMES,
01:53and for those responsible to be held criminally accountable.
01:56The world's youngest country has been plagued by civil war, poverty, corruption,
02:01and intercommunal violence since it was formed in 2011.
