Witnesses relive horror of men and boys locked in container and left to die

Harrowing accounts of the moment 60 men and boys were locked up in a sweltering container and left to suffocate were revealed in a report on Friday. Witnesses described hearing the desperate victims screaming and banging on the walls of the shipping container as they were condemned to death in 40C heat by government troops in South Sudan. They also said those who died were cattle keepers, traders, students and not anti-government fighters. The evidence, from 23 witnesses, was proof a war crime had been committed, said Amnesty International, which compiled the report.

Witnesses described hearing the detainees crying and screaming in distress and banging on the walls of the shipping container, which they said had no windows or other form of ventilation

Amnesty International report

The atrocity took place in a Catholic church compound in the town of Leer in October 2015, Amnesty said. One witness saw troops open the container, remove four corpses and then, “close the container again on the remaining detainees who were still alive inside”. Their bodies were dumped in an open field, where Amnesty researchers found “remains of many broken skeletons still strewn across the ground”. In a separate report on Friday, the United Nations said the South Sudan government lets fighters rape women as payment and described the country as “one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world”. In one incident soldiers argued over whether to rape a six-year-old girl and then shot her.

The armed militias… commit violations under an agreement of ‘do what you can and take what you can’

United Nations report

south sudan