The Bor massacre was a massacre of an estimated 5,000 to 20,000 civilians in
Bor on November 15, 1991 during the
Second Sudanese Civil War
The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement, Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil Wa ...
. The massacre was carried out mostly by
Nuer fighters from
SPLA-Nasir, led by
Riek Machar
Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon (born 26 November 1952) is a South Sudanese politician who has served as the vice president of South Sudan on several occasions, most recently as the first vice president, since 2020.
A member of the Nuer ethnic group ...
, and the militant group known as the
Nuer White Army
The Nuer White Army, sometimes decapitalised as the "white army", is a semi-official name for an ethnic Nuer militant organization in central and eastern Greater Upper Nile in modern-day South Sudan formed around 1991. According to the Small Arm ...
, shortly after Machar split off from the
SPLA led by
John Garang
John Garang De Mabior (June 23, 1945 – July 30, 2005) was a Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M, Now known as South Sudan People's Defense Forces) as a co ...
.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
said at least 5,000 Dinka were killed, though the real number may have been higher. In the years which followed, an estimated 25,000
[ more died from ]famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...
as their cattle were either stolen or shot and the fighting had displaced them from the land they had once cultivated. At the time, Riek Machar described the incident as "propaganda" and "myth". In 2012, he publicly apologized for his part in the massacre.Sudan Tribune
The ''Sudan Tribune'' is an electronic news portal on Sudan and South Sudan and neighbouring countries including news coverage, analyses and commentary, official reports and press releases from various organizations, and maps. It is based in P ...
August 31, 2007 http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article23545. By Gatkuoth Lam. Dinka
The Dinka people () are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Mangalla-Bor to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out of three provinces that were formerly part of southern ...
Bor Massacre
A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
See also
* List of massacres in Sudan
*Second Sudanese Civil War
The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement, Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil Wa ...
* Pibor massacre
* 2014 Bentiu massacre
References
{{coord missing, Sudan
Massacres in 1991
Second Sudanese Civil War
Military history of South Sudan
Jonglei State
20th-century mass murder in Sudan
November 1991 in Africa
1991 murders in Sudan
Massacres in Sudan
Massacres in South Sudan