Alex de Waal South Sudan’s civil war began on the evening of 15 December 2013. Over the next three days, government soldiers killed hundreds of civilians in Juba, immediately after which rebel soldiers also went on a killing spree as they overran the town of Bor (UNMISS 2014). The atrocities were also described by John Prendergast of the Enough Project (2014b: 2): At the outset of the conflict in mid-December 2013, Dinka soldiers of the Presidential Guard conducted targeted killings in Nuer neighborhoods in Juba and Bentiu, going door-to-door in search of Nuer and executing hundreds. We visited the main U.N. compound in Juba, where over 27,000 internally displaced people - mainly Nuers - have sought sanctuary, and listened to harrowing stories of ethnic targeting. Prendergast concluded (ibid.: 7):….