Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

South Sudan

UN investigation team attacked in Mayendit

The U.N. mission in South Sudan has said its investigation team came under fire while investigating reports of a massacre of nearly 80 people by armed men in uniforms on Wednesday.

"According to local sources, so far 78 people were reported killed, 68 wounded, nine missing and thousands are reported to be displaced," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Speaking in a press conference in Juba on Thursday, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Lize Grande said one team member was shot and was immediately evacuated.

She said another investigation team has been deployed to Tonj East of Warap State to carry on with the investigation.

"...our team in Mayendit did came under fire. And we had seven UN personnel that needed to be extracted. unfortunately one of the team members was shot... the person is fine... but we were very worried at the time as you can imagine and that's why the extraction was so urgent for us. So the work in Tonj East is continuing but we had to urgently pull that team out of Mayendit, we had to get them into safety."