In a scathing report published on Thursday, Amnesty International has accused United Nations peacekeepers and South Sudanese authorities of failing to act on warnings before an armed attack on a village in Abiemnom, near the Sudan border, which resulted in the death of over 200 people earlier this year. The rights group alleges that UNMISS, the UN mission in South Sudan, knew an assault was imminent but did not reinforce its peacekeepers until after the March 1st attack. Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty's director for East and Southern Africa, stated, "Both the government and UNMISS had sufficient information and time to take more effective preventive action. Their failure to take stronger action cost lives."
According to Amnesty's report, between 1,000 and 1,500 armed men from Mayom County launched an assault on the village, killing residents, burning homes, and looting part of the hospital. The authorities reported a death toll exceeding 200, which included 130 town residents, 76 security personnel, and seven foreign nationals. Satellite images revealed over 230 structures were burned, and most victims were buried in two mass graves. Amnesty suggests that the attack may have been motivated by tensions over earlier killings of several young men from Mayom County.
UNMISS spokesperson Priyanka Chowdhury stated that the mission had done its best to protect and treat approximately 2,500 people seeking refuge in a protected area it set up before the attack, but faced budget cuts and had concentrated its resources on immediate protection of civilians. She also acknowledged that UNMISS had repeatedly requested additional forces from the national army after early warnings and was aware of heightened tensions since mid-February.
Amnesty has questioned why 40 more police were not deployed sooner, particularly in light of a similar deadly attack in April 2025. The UN Security Council (UNSC) renewed UNMISS's mandate in April but reduced its authorized troop ceiling from 17,000 to 12,000. Protecting civilians is a core task of the mission. South Sudan is set to hold elections on December 22nd, and concerns have been raised about the potential for these elections to unravel a fragile peace. The African Union envoy Jakaya Kikwete has urged the UNSC to help ensure the vote is peaceful, while Murithi Mutiga of the International Crisis Group warned that a rushed election could be "a final blow" to a 2018 peace agreement that ended five years of brutal civil war. South Sudanese authorities have not responded to two letters from Amnesty requesting information and responses to the report's preliminary findings. The rights group has called for an independent investigation into the killings and a separate review of the peacekeepers’ response, stating, "Behind every statistic is a story of devastation, death, and destruction. Abiemnom’s survivors deserve truth, justice, and assurances that such a tragedy will never happen again."