Major General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki (right) during a past event.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday sacked Major General
Ondieki, the commander of the peacekeeping force in South Sudan
following a damning report showing failure to protect civilians during
violence earlier this year in Juba. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA
GROUP
UNITED NATIONS
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday sacked the commander of the peacekeeping force in ...
South Sudan following a damning report showing failure to protect civilians during violence earlier this year in Juba.
South Sudan following a damning report showing failure to protect civilians during violence earlier this year in Juba.
The
report from a UN special investigation found that a lack of leadership
in the UN mission culminated in a "chaotic and ineffective response"
during the heavy fighting in the capital from July 8 to 11.
Peacekeepers
abandoned their posts and failed to respond to pleas for help from aid
workers under attack in a nearby hotel, according to a summary of the
report.
The UN mission known as UNMISS has 16,000 troops deployed in South Sudan, which has been at war since December 2013.
"The
special investigation found that UNMISS did not respond effectively to
the violence due to an overall lack of leadership, preparedness and
integration among the various components of the mission," said UN
spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Chinese peacekeepers abandoned their positions at least twice
and Nepalese peacekeepers failed to stop looting inside the UN compound,
the inquiry found.
The blue helmets from China, Ethiopia, Nepal and India received "multiple and sometimes conflicting orders."
Ban
said he was "deeply distressed by these findings" and "alarmed by the
serious shortcomings identified by the special investigation."
The
UN chief "has asked for the immediate replacement of the force
commander," said Dujarric, adding that other measures would follow.
Lieutenant
General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki of Kenya had been the force
commander since May. UN mission chief Ellen Margrethe Loj of Denmark
steps down at the end of November after more than two years in the job.
FIERCE FIGHTING
The
fierce fighting in Juba involved helicopter gunships and tanks pitting
President Salva Kiir's government forces against those loyal to ex-rebel
chief Riek Machar.
Machar fled the capital during the
violence, which derailed international efforts to form a unity
government and restore peace to South Sudan.
About a
dozen aid workers and UN staff housed at the Terrain compound were
attacked by South Sudanese soldiers on July 11, but the peacekeepers,
just 1.2 kilometers (0.7 miles) away, failed to come to their aid.
During
the attack at the Terrain compound, "civilians were subjected to and
witnessed gross human rights violations, including murder, intimidation,
sexual violence and acts amounting to torture perpetrated by armed
government soldiers," said the report.
The
investigation led by retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert was unable
to verify allegations that peacekeepers did nothing to help women who
were raped near the UN base during the heavy fighting.
But
in a later incident on September 2, a woman was assaulted near the
entrance to a UN compound "in plain sight" of the peacekeepers, the
report said.
"Despite the woman's screams, they did not react" and other UN staff intervened, it added.
"Despite the woman's screams, they did not react" and other UN staff intervened, it added.
After
the crisis, peacekeepers "continued to display a risk-averse posture
unsuited to protecting civilians from sexual violence" and other
attacks, said the report.
UNMISS soldiers refused to
conduct foot patrols near UN bases and instead would "peer out from the
tiny windows of armoured personnel carriers, an approach ill-suited to
detecting perpetrators of sexual violence and engaging with communities
to provide a sense of security."
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