UN says South Sudan allows fighters to rape women as means of payment
Sudan People's Liberation Army soldiers stand outside a United Nations base in Abyei May 16, 2008. South Sudanese government allows its fighters rape women and girls as payment, the United Nations rights office has said. PHOTO | REUTERS
What you need to know:
- South Sudanese government allows its fighters rape women and girls as payment, the United Nations rights office has said.
- “Most of the youth therefore also raided cattle, stole personal property, raped and abducted women and girls as a form of payment,” the report added.
GENEVA, Friday
South Sudanese government allows its fighters rape women and girls as payment, the United Nations rights office has said, adding that it was one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world.
“The assessment team received information that militias...who carry out attacks together with the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (South Sudanese military) commit violations under an agreement of do-what-you-can and take-what-you-can,” the rights office said in a new report.
“Most of the youth therefore also raided cattle, stole personal property, raped and abducted women and girls as a form of payment,” the report added.
In a report, the UN human rights office painted a harrowing picture of civilians suspected of supporting the opposition, including children, being burnt alive, suffocated in shipping containers, hanged from trees and cut to pieces.
UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein meanwhile warned that brutal rapes had been used systematically as an instrument of terror and weapon of war.
“This is one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world,” he added in his statement.
After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan erupted into civil war in December 2013, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.
