Lurid details have emerged of how an irate group of gunmen shot civilians dead inside the UN camp in Malakal last month, just below the noses of the UN peacekeepers.

There were conflicting reports about the scale of the fighting, with the UN initially saying seven people were killed and later raising the death toll to 25.

A new report by the Small Arms Survey, a global centre that generates evidence-based knowledge on all aspects of small arms and armed violence, says the fighting was seen long coming, but was not curtailed in time.

It says disturbances started on the 16^th of February, when what it calls a militia group allied to a certain community tried to enter the UN camp with guns. Civilians in the camp, who tribally identify with the gunmen that wanted to enter the camp, started cutting the fence and evacuating their women and children.

“This degree of prior organization indicates that the subsequent events at the PoC site were not unexpected bout of random violence, but rather a planned assault,” partly reads the Human Security Baseline Assessment report.

The next day, some 80 armed men in military uniforms entered the camp, and with the help of some IDPs inside the facility, attacked members of two other communities.

“Fighting continued throughout the night,” the report says.

In response, the report continues, the mission sent a single fire engine to the site to try to put off some of the fires, but after being attacked, the gunmen withdrew immediately.

Some IDPs started running to safety, but were turned away.

“UNMISS guards refused to open the gate, which was not breached” until the following morning on the third day of the violence.

Approximately 15,000 dwellings were burned and property looted.

The report says the mission discussed whether it should enter the site in the two days of the clashes, “But the UN peacekeeping forces expressed a reluctance to use deadly force, although UNMISS has a chapter VII mandate that specifically allows the use of force to protect civilians”.

It was later in the afternoon on Feb 18, after the fighting had subsided, that the peacekeepers entered the burning section of the camp, according to the report.

Eventually, at least 40 were killed and more than 90 others injured.

The findings of the Small Arms Survey are similar to the outcome of an investigation by representatives of two communities that have been displaced from the camp.

In a memo addressed to the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, the representatives provided a list of 49 people they said were killed in the violence.

They said some armed soldiers allied to a particular community went to the gates of UNMISS on Feb 16 and refused to be frisked by the security guards.

The displaced people from the rival two communities notified the mission that some armed elements were already at the base, but soon, clashes broke out at what is known as Sector 2 in the camp. But community leaders managed to quell the clashes.

No casualties were reported, but tension had risen to the peak. On the second day, the situation worsened. Bullets rang out throughout the section of the camp until the early hours of February 19.

“As a result of this, all IDPs gathered in Charlie Gate, looking for safety, but they were prevented [from] entering the Log Base till some IDPS broke the fence at IndBatt side,” the representatives said in the memo, referring to two gates of the fence and one of the peacekeeping battalions.

“The gate was opened to them after some people had lost their lives as a result of denying them entry,” they said.

The representatives said the list of 49 people shot dead, 90 injured, and 26 missing covers the side of their two communities only.

“We are also blaming our protectors….as they also contributed negatively by shooting into people running for their lives to seek safety inside the [site] when it was not possible for them to hide,” the representatives added.

“As a result of their action, five people got shot, of which some of them passed on, unfortunately.”

UNMISS could never confirm or deny the contents of the two reports.

“Following preliminary investigations by the mission, the department of peacekeeping operations and department of field service in consultation with UNMISS is looking to convene an independent board of enquiry which will look to conduct an in-depth investigation into UNMISS response,” Shantal Persuad, the acting spokesperson, told Eye Radio in response to the report by the Small Arms Survey.

“So let’s allow the investigation to take place and process to be carried out and after that I am sure the findings will be clear,” she added.

The mission gave a similar response when contacted by Eye Radio about the findings of the IDP representatives.

“There were other figures here and there. I know the Shilluk also is giving other figures and I’m speaking on the figures I was given,” Spokesperson Ariane Quentier said, referring to a release by a medical charity, MSF, that 18 had been killed.

She added: “We are reviewing everything that happened and am not commenting because there’s [an] ongoing process.”

In fact, UNMISS said on February 18, that only five civilians were killed, and 30 others injured. However, it later raised the number to seven. Currently, the UN estimates that 25 people were killed in the attack.

It said “violence involving the use of small arms, machetes, and other weapons broke out between youth from both communities in the late evening of 17 February”.

The mission said although the fighting started among communal youth, the situation worsened when armed men in military uniforms took sides.

The government, the SPLM in Opposition, and the official opposition in parliament criticized how the UN handled the violence.

‘Bury heads in the sand’

Despite the UN’s assertion that the matter worsened because of involvement of men in uniform, Information Minister Michael Makuei said the mission should have protected the civilians anyway.

“The UNMISS is supposed to protect the population, but unfortunately, it is even unable to protect those who are with them in the camp,” Mr Makuei said.

The government has announced investigation into the killings.

The Leader of Minority in the National Legislative Assembly, Onyoti Adigo, said the mission did not do enough to protect civilians.

“We hold UNMISS responsible for failing to carry out its mandate for protection of civilians,” said Mr Onyoti, who was speaking on behalf of six Chollo MPs in the parliament a few days after the incident.

The Small Arms Survey also quoted the deputy military spokesman of the SPLM in Opposition forces, Dickson Gatluak, saying: “[The] UN and UNMISS, instead of burying their heads in the sand, should clearly come out and announce that they are powerless to execute their mandate of protecting unarmed civilians.”

The report says the fighting was related to politics of the creation of more states.