File: Michele Bachelet, speaks during Special Session of the Human Rights Council.

The UN Human Rights Commissioner has called for swift investigations into recent violence that reportedly killed, wounded and displaced people in Jonglei state.

The body added its condemnation to the new outbreak of intercommunal violence, calling for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Last week, armed men from Greater Pibor launched what they described as a revenge attack on Lou-Nuer areas in Jonglei state.

Local officials say the figures show that more than 242 people were killed, while 307 people were injured.

Those seriously wounded were airlifted to Yai by the International Committee of the Red Cross for treatment.

The attack forced organizations such as MSF to suspend operations after one of its staff was killed and two others injured in the greater Akobo.

“The reports from Jonglei State are appalling”, Michelle Bachelet said in a statement seen by Eye Radio.

The High Commissioner for UN Human Rights stated that the recurring pattern of violence, which continues to claim lives in South Sudan, has to stop.

She noted that there has been an increase in intercommunal violence with 658 people killed, 452 wounded, and 592 abducted in 2020 alone.

A UN report revealed that 65 people have been subjected to sexual violence during the first quarter of 2020.

Jonglei State and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area have suffered years of food insecurity and were severely hit by flooding in 2019.

The former Chilean President [2006 – 2018] emphasized that the perpetrators of these intercommunal acts of violence have not been arrested and prosecuted.

Michelle Bachelet underlined the importance of ending the circle of retaliatory violence by holding those responsible to account and promoting peace-building between individual communities

“I urge the Government to ensure measures are in place to investigate this violence and to ensure that those responsible are prosecuted and that victims and their families have access to justice, truth and reparations,” she stressed.

The statement by the UN Human Rights Commissioner concluded that the nature of the intercommunal conflicts has been evolving in recent years, taking on an increasingly militarized character with military-style tactics and military-grade weapons.

It stressed that for peace in South Sudan to be durable, the government must act promptly.

Last week, local leaders called on the national government to enforce past resolutions reached by communities in greater Jonglei.

Some of the crucial resolutions made by the Dinka, Nuer, and Murle communities included the formation of joint integrated police that would monitor the free movement of pastoralists and their cattle across the states.

They also agreed to form community policing and joint mobile courts comprising of cattle keepers to handle criminal cases, return abducted children and report to relevant authorities.