(BSS/AFP) - South Sudan and UN peacekeepers failed to act on warnings of a massacre that ended with more than 200 dead in March, Amnesty International said Thursday.

The world`s youngest country has been plagued by civil war, poverty, corruption and intercommunal violence since it was formed in 2011.

On March 1, at least 1,000 armed men from the Nuer ethnic group launched a four-hour assault in Abiemnom County, near the Sudanese border, killing more than 200 people, including children, and injuring many others.

"This is one of South Sudan`s largest documented massacres since 2020," said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International`s regional director for East and Southern Africa.

In its investigation, the rights group found that both South Sudanese authorities and the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) received warnings at least two weeks in advance that a nearby community was preparing weapons and fighters to seek revenge for a previous attack.

UNMISS acknowledged that tensions had been high since mid-February, with about 1,000 people seeking shelter at its temporary base on the outskirts of Abiemnom in the 48 hours before the attack, Amnesty said.

"Both the government and UNMISS had sufficient information and time to take more effective preventive action. Their failure to take stronger action cost lives," Chagutah said.

Seven people were killed outside the rear gates of the UNMISS base, where residents had fled for protection.

"In the morning, [town residents] trying to run to UNMISS found the Nuer groups standing there and [shooting at them]," a local town leader told Amnesty.

- `Criminally accountable` -

Witnesses told Amnesty that attackers shot residents in their homes and courtyards, as well as people fleeing or seeking shelter. Some victims were shot at close range after being captured or wounded.

"They pulled my cousin from under the bed and shot him in the head and killed him on the spot," a 20-year-old survivor recounted.

The attackers also burned homes and the market, looted property and ransacked part of the local hospital, stealing medical supplies and mattresses, witnesses said.

Most of the bodies were buried in two mass graves on the outskirts of the town.

Satellite imagery reviewed by Amnesty showed that more than 230 structures had been destroyed by fire.

The massacre forced the entire population to flee Abiemnom.

Amnesty said the government and UNMISS should launch investigations into the attack and hold those responsible "criminally accountable".

"Abiemnom`s survivors deserve truth, justice and assurances that such a tragedy will never happen again," Chagutah said.