The United Nations (UN) human rights commission on Monday urged South Sudanese authorities to investigate senior officials suspected of abetting sexual violence, reported The Anadolu Agency.
“If the government of South Sudan is serious about tackling sexual violence, it should immediately remove from office and investigate governors and county commissioners credibly alleged to be complicit in systematic rape,” UN experts said in a statement.
Yasmin Sooka, the chairperson of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, said many women in South Sudan have been repeatedly gang raped year after year since 2013. She said that the rape victims have been stigmatized and left to suffer in silence.
She slammed the government for just making an array of declarations, national commitments and pledges and not taking any strict action against sexual violence.
“It is not enough, now and again, to try a handful of junior officers without holding those in command responsible,” the UN official said.
The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said that it had reasonable grounds to believe a county commissioner in the northern oil-rich state of Unity arranged for gang rapes at a military camp.
The commission also published a report titled “Conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls in South Sudan” on March 21 this year.
South Sudanese Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth rejected the commission’s statement, saying that such reports are published only to spoil the government’s image.
“I am saying these are false reports fabricated against the government,” Lueth told in a telephonic interview with The Anadolu Agency from the capital, Juba. “They are done to tarnish the image of South Sudan.”
Last week, South Sudan’s Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare said that it had recorded more than 6,000 cases of gender-based violence (GBV) between January and November 2021.
In related news, the UN said that nearly 9.4 million people in South Sudan are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, while nearly a third of 12.4 million people are facing severe food insecurity.
