The U.N. Security Council approved plans to almost double the number of peacekeepers in South Sudan in an attempt to guard civilians as news of mass graves fuelled fears of a aggravation of ethnic bloodletting in the country.
The move came as the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the country said the death toll from the past 10 days of violence was likely now in the thousands, rather than the hundreds the world body had previously estimated.
On Tuesday, The United Nations said around 75 bodies had been discovered in a mass grave in rebel-held Bentiu.
“We have discovered a mass grave in Bentiu, in Unity State, and there are reportedly at least two other mass graves in Juba,” UN rights Chief Navi Pillay said in a statement.
Pillay’s spokeswoman told news agencies that the mass grave in Bentiu contained around 75 bodies.
Ethnic killings across the country erupted as military troops supporting President Salva Kiir clashed with those supporting his rival Riek Machar post an announcement of a failed coup attempt to overthrow Kiir’s rule.