Hundreds of South Sudanese refugees fled into Uganda for a second day on Wednesday, bearing further grim testimony of an attack by government forces on the border town of Pajok in which at least 17 people were killed.
Some were shot as they tried to flee. Others had their throats slit before their bodies were strung up from door frames. Two children were run down by a car.
Reports that south sudanese soldiers had killed residents were untrue, SPLA deputy spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol said. His troops had orders to refrain from entering and taking over Pajok, he said.
“This is not true. It is just a manufactured campaign against the SPLA. Some people are not happy, because the SPLA flushed out bandits and rebels who have been controlling Pajok for the last two years,” he added.
“What I know is that the bandits are looting and killing the population in Pajok, starting on Friday, Saturday.”
South Sudan, which split away from Sudan in 2011 after decades of conflict, has been mired in civil war since President Salva Kiir sacked his vice president Riek Machar in 2013.
The Pajok assault is the latest in a string of attacks in the fertile Equatoria region that is emptying towns and villages near the border with Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.
More than 1.5 million people have fled in the last nine months, nearly two thirds of them to Uganda, which is struggling to cope.
The Ugandan government and United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) are scrambling to complete a half-built refugee settlement near Ngomoromo for the latest arrivals, who are living in the bush at the Ugandan border.