UN images: 18,000 destroyed structures in South Sudan region
NAIROBI, Kenya — United Nations satellite images obtained by The Associated Press show at least 18,000 structures have been destroyed in the Yei area of South Sudan. It is one of the most significant caches of evidence of widespread destruction in the country’s civil war.
The Yei region has become an epicenter of fighting between government and rebels after a peace deal collapsed in July. The U.N. has highlighted the area for its risk of genocide, and an AP reporter late last year during a visit to Yei saw charred bodies with their arms bound.
The U.N. satellite images taken last month show how population centres like Yei, Morobo and Bazi have been mostly devastated, while the damage reaches deep into the countryside. In parts of Kaya and Morobo towns, nearly every building is in ruins.
The images do not show who is responsible for the destruction, but monitors of South Sudan’s peace deal said last week that in most instances in Yei, “buildings were deliberately set on fire by government forces.”