In 2022, the UN warned of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law as the military attacked and displaced civilians. It reported that armed groups killed approximately 173 civilians, raped or gang raped 113 women and 18 girls, abducted 26 women and 11 children, and forcibly displaced an estimated 44,000 civilians – all in the space of less than four months.
During the 2022 attacks, joint government forces and allied militias allegedly used ‘scorched earth’ tactics. They stormed villages and settlements, and randomly attacked unarmed civilians, including women, children and elderly people. According to the report:
“Victims were killed as a result of random shooting, while others died of fatal injuries and beheading by machetes and bayonets, and by being intentionally thrown into huts […] and set on fire. The attackers also burnt alive children and older persons who could not flee their homes. Children were also intentionally drowned in the swamps by the attackers.”
The UN has also emphasised the systematic use of sexual violence in South Sudan. It has documented the military’s role in abducting, sexually enslaving, sexually torturing, beating and inhumanely treating women and girls. It stated that sexual violence is used to reward combatants and severely disrupt communities.
Witness testimony showcases examples of the horrific trend:
“Two elderly women and a four-year-old girl and another young boy were burnt alive in tukuls [round homes in Eastern Africa]. A man and woman of 70 years old were strangled to death… another shot and killed by two men. Then they gang-raped three of the women, including one nine-year-old girl whom they gang-raped to death.”
Account of witness from Adok
The UN has found that gang and mass rape at the hands of the military “appears to involve a high degree of planning and deliberate intention”. It even sanctioned the country’s most senior military commander alongside other senior officers – a measure it has rarely taken.
