South Sudan president says government troops retake key town

South Sudan President Salva Kiir said on Tuesday government troops have take control of the Jonglei state capital Bor, a key town which rebels loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar seized last week.
   
"Forces loyal to the government have taken Bor and (are) now clearing whatever forces that are remaining there," Kiir told journalist at his office in Juba.

This after mass grave containing some 75 bodies has been found in South Sudan's Unity State and two other mass graves have been reported in Juba after ethnic violence, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
   
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on both sides to protect civilians and warned that political and military leaders could be held to account for crimes.
   
"Mass extrajudicial killings, the targeting of individuals on the basis of their ethnicity and arbitrary detentions have been documented in recent days," Pillay said in a statement. "We have discovered a mass grave in Bentiu, in Unity State, and there are reportedly at least two other mass graves in Juba."
   
Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said that the bodies of 75 soldiers of the Sudan People's Liberation Army were believed to be in the mass grave in Bentiu visited by U.N. rights officers.


REUTERS