Mass atrocities feared in South Sudan as ethnic violence is stoked by hunger

The Guardian ^ | 19 Dec 2016 | Ben Quinn

[Cronos]

...Vicious fighting between different ethnic groups erupted in the camp last year. It was not the first time they had seen violence. Timon remembers vividly the killing that took place around them as they abandoned the family’s 10 prized cows and escaped the fierce conflict around Malakal, the capital of oil-producing Upper Nile region.

Inside the camp, however, violence erupted again. Timon told how the family huddled together as opposing ethnic groups fought in the narrow lanes using knives, guns and grenades. Among his mother’s worries is that he could be at risk of joining the estimated 16,000 children recruited by armed forces and militias since the conflict began in 2013.

...Diplomats on the ground in the capital, Juba, refrain from using the term genocide. But they point to a number of factors that have heightened alarm, not least signs of a mass build-up of regular troops and militias loyal to the president, Salva Kiir. Since December 2013, the former independence fighter has been at odds with his former vice-president, Riek Machar. Kiir, a Dinka, accused Machar, a Nuer, of plotting a coup, quickly dividing the country along sectarian lines.

...Mahimbo Mdoe, Unicef’s representative in South Sudan, believes the combination of conflict, rising levels of malnutrition and economic crisis – inflation is at 830% – has created a “perfect storm” for further deterioration.

...Asked how the conflict compared to the more than two decades of fighting that preceded South Sudan’s independence, she pauses and shakes her head: “This war has gone beyond any expectation. When we were fighting with the Arabs they would spare women and children, but now everyone is killed, even blind people and those who are mad. They kill everyone. It’s worse than before.”

[Cronos]

This is horrifying -- in the 90s and early 2000s I thought the Arabs were doing horrible things to the blacks (whom I thought were Christians, but later found out are majority animists with some "somewhat Christians" and "somewhat Moslems")

Now I see that after the Arabs are gone, the sub-Saharan AFricans are even worse to each other.

[marktwain]

It is the Guardian. They are far left, and likely minimize Christian casualties.

[riverrunner]

Tribal Africans doing what tribal Africans doing what they have been doing for thousands of years.

We almost had them civilized but let them go back to their tribal ways.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Not my problem. Don’t give a damn.