UNICEF says 129 children were killed in Unity State last month by both the government and the SPLM in Opposition forces.

In a statement, UNICEF describes incidents of torture and killing of both boys and girls.

The agency’s Executive Director, Anthony Lake, says survivors reported that some boys were castrated and left to bleed to death.

He says girls as young as 8 years were gang raped and murdered. Some children had their throats slit and others were thrown into burning buildings.

SPLA says the report is not credible.

“I think UNICEF is not in the field and if they are not in the field, what they can suggest is investigation instead of rushing into publishing a figure that such a number of children were killed or raped or head cut,” said Colonel Philip Aguer, SPLA spokesperson.

“That needs an investigation because that culture of killing children is in the Middle East. We used to see it on TV, in Syria, and it has not reached us in South Sudan – to kill such a big number of children at a go.”

The SPLM in Opposition forces say Unicef has not made a proper assessment.

Deputy military spokesman, Dickson Gatluak, says his forces were on the defensive in Unity State last month. He says his forces were not in control of areas that were burned in the renewed fighting.

But Unicef says it based the statement on reports from eyewitnesses who survived the killings.