Rights groups accuse security forces in S Sudan rape

Scores of women singled out for their ethnicity or political ties are said to have been raped in recent weeks by members of the security forces or ruling parties in South Sudan and Burundi.

At least 120 sexual assaults are known to have been carried out this month in Juba, South Sudan's capital, by soldiers and men in plain clothes, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Dozens of the victims are members of the Nuer ethnic group who were attacked near a UN civilian-protection camp by soldiers in South Sudan's predominantly Dinka army, the Associated Press reported on the basis of eyewitness accounts.

Nuer make up a majority of the rebel forces that have been battling government troops for nearly three years.

Two of the women attacked recently in Juba died from injuries inflicted by the rapists, leaders at the UN protection site told the press agency.

One rape took place a short distance from the camp as 30 UN Chinese and Nepalese peacekeepers looked on and did not intervene, according to an account by local sources cited by the Associated Press.

Youth aligned with the ruling party in Burundi have likewise committed numerous rapes of women and girls believed to be family members of perceived government opponents, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday.

“Attackers from Burundi’s ruling party youth league tied up, brutally beat and gang-raped women, often with their children nearby,” said Skye Wheeler, women’s rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Many of the women have suffered long-term physical and psychological consequences.”

Burundian police officers have also engaged in sexual violence in a country shaken by political protests and killings during the past year, the monitoring group added.

Several rapes are said to have occurred in a refugee camp across the border in Tanzania, with victims telling Human Rights Watch that some of the attackers were wearing police uniforms.

Women in the Nduta camp interviewed by HRW identified another alleged rapist as a member of the Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the party led by Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Human Rights Watch said it conveyed these allegations in a July 12 letter to Pascal Nyabenda, head of Burundi's ruling party, but no reply has been received.

In regard to the UN's report of widespread sexual violence in Juba, a spokesman for South Sudan's army said the allegations will be investigated.

The army is taking “the whole accusation very seriously,” spokesman Lul Ruai Koang told reporters.