Human rights group Amnesty International says it has gathered evidence that government forces suffocated 62 people in a shipping container in Leer in October.

The report follows a similar statement by the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, which said up to 50 people were killed in this incident.

Amnesty International says it interviewed 42 people, including 23 witnesses who saw the men and boys being forced into the shipping container.

The container had no windows or any other form of ventilation, causing the people to die on the compound of the former Comboni Catholic Church.

The rights group says some witnesses either saw the dead bodies removed from the container or visited the site where government forces dumped the corpses.

The group says it has evidence that government forces, including the area commander at the time, were aware of the situation of the detainees and decided to keep them locked inside the container.

But the SPLA has denied the allegations.

“If there is something like that, let the victims or people of those victims report properly,” said Lt-Col Marko Mayol, acting army spokesman. “Let them open a case against the SPLA.”

In February, the JMEC gave a similar testimony in a report to the African Union Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa.

JMEC said the government was responsible for the death of some 50 civilians, who suffocated in the shipping container on October 22, 2015.

Amnesty International has called for an independent investigation into the incident and for holding those responsible to account.