UN Security Council members vote during a session. (File photo).

The United Nations Security Council says it is considering imposing sanctions on individuals in both the Government of South Sudan and the SPLM/SPLA-in Opposition.

An emergency close-door meeting of the Council was held at the UN Headquarters in New York last night.

The meeting focused on the recent attacks against civilians in Bentiu and Bor towns.

The 15 members of the Security Council were shown pictures of atrocities committed in the two areas.

Following the meeting, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, told Al-Jazeera Television that the situation raises grave concerns over the protection of civilians in South Sudan.

“It’s one of deep shock, deep shock first in the human sense. I see hundreds of bodies, can you imagine 200 bodies left to rot in a mosque, people killed in hospitals that is a real scandal,” said Mr Ladsous.

“There are difficulties for us to move around to go where we need to go. We have difficulty in even sending humanitarian aircrafts to some places. ”

The spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric said the on-going conflict in South Sudan could lead to humanitarian disaster.

Mr. Dujarric said they’re also concerned over the situation of the IDPs in the UN camps:

“These camps were not designed to house thousands and thousands of people or families, they were not designed to be setup like feeding centers in an area that were prone to flooding and rainy seasons. All these are very, very difficult and challenging times, there is a lot of tension in these camps.”

The Human Rights Watch has called on the UN Security Council to sanction leaders on both sides who are responsible for these abuses.