The United Nations (UN) has accused members of South Sudan’s government of committing human rights violations amounting to war crimes in the country’s southwest, reported TRT World.
In a report released on Friday, the UN Human Rights Commission in South Sudan urged investigations against dozens of individuals, including for abuses against children.
In the report, the UN Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) in South Sudan said it had “reasonable grounds to believe that members of the Government of South Sudan have engaged in acts … amounting to war crimes” in the southwestern districts of Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria.
In a statement, Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that the commission has compiled a list that includes the names of 142 individuals who warrant investigation for a range of crimes under national and international law.
The report described grave rights abuses, like mass rapes, sexual slavery of women to the killing of dozens of children, including an infant who was beaten to death by soldiers in front of his mother.
“The notion that the localized violence is not linked to the State or to national-level conflicts, as suggested by the Government and South Sudanese military elites, is a fallacy,” Sooka said.
He said that almost all 14 of the risk factors for atrocity crimes listed by the UN are currently present in South Sudan.
Earlier this month, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the OHCHR noted in a report that at least 440 civilians were killed in brutal fighting between rival armed groups in the country’s southwest between June and September last year.
The report blamed President Salva Kiir’s forces and rival troops led by Vice President Riek Machar, as well as their respective affiliated militias, for the violence.
