The United Nations says there is “no doubt” that thousands of people have been killed in the weeklong fighting across South Sudan, while official figures put the death toll at nearly 500.
“Absolutely no doubt in my mind that we’re into the thousands” of dead, said Toby Lanzer, the top UN humanitarian chief in the country, at a press conference in the capital Juba on Tuesday.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said earlier in the day that a mass grave was unearthed in the rebel-held town of Bentiu, the capital of the oil-rich Unity State.
Fighting has gripped South Sudan for more than a week, after the government accused former vice president Riek Machar, who was sacked in July, of attempting to stage a coup.
Machar denied the claim and accused the president of exploiting the tensions to clamp down on his rivals.
On Monday, Machar said he was ready for talks with the government to put an end to more than a week of fighting.
He said dialog could start “straight away” if the government released his detained political allies and evacuated to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
The government said last week that 10 senior political figures, many of them former ministers, were arrested in connection with an investigation of the alleged coup attempt led by Machar.
According to the UN, fighting has spread to half of South Sudan’s 10 states, with hundreds of thousands fleeing to the countryside for fear of being killed.
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