Juba Regime Conscripting Civilians as Human shields!

In response to this very dire situation, the ethnocentric Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) regime in Juba has at least for the last four months or so increasingly turned to forceful conscription of innocent civilians as human shields in its ongoing offensive particularly in Upper Nile and Unity States.

The forceful conscription by the Juba regime of some four hundred and seventy purely Chollo (Shilluk) civilians in Pachoda as human shields is not only intended to inflict maximum bloodshed on and accelerate total annihilation of the Chollo people during the offensive, but also is a very clear indication of Juba regime use of innocent civilian locations as a staging grounds and observation posts for launching attacks on SPLA (IO) positions and bases in the area and indeed across South Sudan.

The same forceful conscription of innocent civilians by the Juba regime in Rubkona, Guit and Bentiu, among others, to act as human shields for the JCE regime in Juba turned two days ago into violent frustration and led to the loss of innocent lives when heavily armed Juba regime soldiers, on direct orders from Taban Deng Gai (TDG), JCE’s leading and most senior instability agent, attacked, killed and injured some IDPs sheltering in the UN Protection (POC) Site in Bentiu.

While we in the SPLM-SPLA (IO) under the able and visionary leadership of Dr Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon condemn with contempt it deserves the forceful conscription and targeted killings of innocent civilians, we also would like to remind the Ghanaian UN contingent in Bentiu not to take side and concentrate on ensuring the UN mandate of protecting civilians is implemented accordingly.