South Sudan: A Failure to Act

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2017

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

**Some viewers may find parts of this report difficult to listen to** “Hiding in the bathroom. They’re trying to break down our door. We maybe have about five minutes.” Juba, capital of South Sudan, 11 July 2016. The female aid worker sending this message was among a number of international and local staff taking refuge behind a bullet proof door in the housing compound where they lived. Tensions were running high in South Sudan’s three year civil war and government troops had gone on the rampage attacking the compound. As the soldiers tried to break down the door, the terrified group frantically appealed to United Nations peacekeepers based just over a kilometer away. Using their phones and sending messages via Skype and Facebook their calls for help went unheeded.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, thanks for downloading the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Tommy Oladigmore.
0:10.0	In July last year, intense fighting broke out in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, between rival groups of soldiers.
0:19.0	Scores of civilians were killed and raped despite the presence of a large UN peacekeeping mission.
0:26.0	And nobody was protecting us, no UN soldiers.
0:30.0	They were watching us and they didn't do anything.
0:33.6	Why are you here?
0:35.6	You have 12,000 plus troop and when the fire is there you run away.
0:40.0	Why are you here?
0:41.0	The peacekeepers were accused of failing to act even to protect those desperately
0:46.7	calling and texting for help just a few minutes from the UN's base.
0:51.4	The whole time what was going through my mind was they're not coming.
0:55.3	People are being shot here, people are being killed, they're not coming.
0:59.4	I've come to Juba to piece together the story of what happened on the final day of fighting July the 11th.
1:08.0	Over the next hour we'll be finding out why the UN Mission failed to respond to multiple calls for assistance
1:15.0	and asking who was responsible. It's a story that questions the credibility of the
1:20.9	UN's peacekeeping operations, not just in South Sudan, but elsewhere in the world.
1:27.0	There's been a terrible deterioration in the situation in South Sudan just three months after a peace deal came into effect.
1:34.0	Explosions, gun fire and shelling could be heard sporadically in Juba.
1:38.8	The UN mission says it is outraged by the latest violence. There are reports that armed groups are
1:44.6	preventing civilians from seeking protection. Monday July the 11th was the
1:49.5	day UN peacekeepers in juba faced their biggest challenge.
1:54.2	Within the space of hours, they would be called on to rescue foreign aid workers under attack.
	...

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