Gunmen kill 12 peacekeepers and UN staff in South Sudan

Five Indian peacekeepers and at least seven UN civilian workers were killed Tuesday in an ambush in South Sudan, officials said, in what the UN secretary general says could be a war crime.

Five Indian peacekeepers and at least seven UN civilian workers were killed Tuesday in an ambush in South Sudan, officials said, in what the UN secretary general says could be a war crime.

The United Nations said South Sudan’s armed forces shot down a U.N. helicopter on Friday killing all four crew members on board — but South Sudan’s military spokesman blamed rebel fighters.
More than 3,000 people were killed in South Sudan in brutal massacres last week in bloody ethnic violence that forced thousands to flee, the top local official in the affected area said Friday.
Thousands of villagers in South Sudan hid in the bush Monday, waiting for UN and government troops to stop a cattle vendetta that officials feared may have left scores of people dead over the weekend.
UNITED NATIONS—South Sudan Thursday became the newest member of the United Nations, as it was welcomed into the world’s top club amid pledges to help one of the planet’s poorest states take its first steps. “I declare South Sudan a member of the United Nations,” said Joseph Deiss, president of the UN General Assembly, after [...]
JUBA—South Sudan’s parliament speaker proclaimed the fledgling state’s independence on Saturday, marking its birth as the world’s newest nation and splitting Africa’s largest country in two. “We, the democratically elected representatives of the people, based on the will of the people of South Sudan, and as confirmed by the outcome of the referendum of self-determination, [...]