Amnesty accuses UN and South Sudan authorities of failing to prevent Abiemnom attack

Amnesty International has accused United Nations peacekeepers and South Sudanese authorities of failing to take stronger action before an armed attack on Abiemnom in which more than 200 people were killed.

The rights organisation said the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and government authorities had warnings that an assault on the remote settlement near the Sudan border was likely. However, UNMISS did not reinforce the roughly three dozen peacekeepers stationed there until after the March 1 attack.

“Both the government and UNMISS had sufficient information and time to take more effective preventive action. Their failure to take stronger action cost lives,” Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty’s director for East and Southern Africa, said.

Attack and reported casualties

Amnesty said between 1,000 and 1,500 armed men from neighbouring Mayom County took part in the assault. According to the organisation’s account, the attackers shot residents, set fire to homes and looted part of the hospital.

South Sudanese authorities put the death toll at more than 200. Their reported breakdown included 130 town residents, 76 security personnel and seven foreign nationals.

Amnesty’s report also cited satellite images showing that more than 230 structures had been burned. Most of the victims were reportedly buried in two mass graves.

The organisation said the attack may have been linked to tensions following the earlier killings of several young men from Mayom County. It presented that possible trigger as part of the circumstances surrounding the violence, rather than as an established explanation.

UNMISS response

Priyanka Chowdhury, a UNMISS spokesperson, said the mission had known tensions were high since mid-February and had repeatedly asked South Sudan’s national army to deploy additional forces after receiving early warnings.

Chowdhury said limited resources and budget cuts affected the mission’s options. UNMISS, she said, “concentrated its available capacity on immediate protection of civilians seeking refuge within our base”. The mission protected and treated about 2,500 people sheltering in the protected area it had established.

UNMISS sent 40 additional police after the attack. Amnesty questioned why reinforcements had not been deployed sooner, particularly following a similar deadly attack in April 2025.

The United Nations Security Council renewed UNMISS’s mandate in April while reducing its authorised troop ceiling from 17,000 to 12,000. Protecting civilians remains one of the mission’s core responsibilities.

Calls for investigations

Amnesty called for an independent investigation into the killings and a separate review of the peacekeepers’ response. The organisation said South Sudanese authorities did not reply to two letters seeking information and responses to its preliminary findings.

Chagutah said the scale of the losses required accountability and assurances for survivors. “Behind every statistic is a story of devastation, death and destruction,” he said.

The violence comes as South Sudan prepares for elections scheduled for December 22. African Union envoy Jakaya Kikwete has urged the Security Council to help ensure that the vote is peaceful.

Murithi Mutiga of the International Crisis Group warned that a rushed election could be “a final blow” to the 2018 peace agreement, which ended five years of brutal civil war, according to the report.