South Sudan rebels blame government for killings of aid workers

Rebels said on Monday the South Sudan government should be held responsible for the killing of six aid workers, the deadliest single assault on humanitarian staff in a three-year-old civil war, Reuters has reported.

The government said it was too early to say who was behind Saturday’s ambush. A United Nations official said on Monday it could amount to a war crime.

The six were ambushed as they were traveling from the capital Juba towards the town of Pibor, the United Nations said, through remote territory largely under government control but fought over by both sides and plagued by militias and other armed groups.

The UN said the six were Kenyans and South Sudanese who worked for the non-governmental Grassroots Empowerment and Development Organization.

It called on those in positions of power in South Sudan to stop the violence.

“It will be counterproductive at this stage for anybody to rush for judgment without first allowing the truth to be established,” Akol Paul Kordit, deputy minister of information, told Reuters in Juba.

Rebel fighters loyal to former vice president Riek Machar said the government should be held accountable as the killings took place on its territory.

“We don’t have forces in that area. Instead it’s the government forces and militias who control that area,” said the spokesman for the rebel SPLM-IO forces, Lam Paul Gabriel.

UN humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said in Geneva the killings could constitute a war crime and must be investigated and prosecuted.

“They are not traveling with escorts, or things like that, they are aid workers, they come unarmed themselves, essentially they have only their humanitarian principles to hold up as a shield,” Laerke told Reuters TV.