The United Nations on Wednesday said the ongoing conflict in South Sudan has left at least 100 civilians dead since a peace deal was signed in September last year, reported Reuters.
According to a report compiled by the Human Rights Division of the UN Mission in South Sudan, the same number of women and girls were raped or suffered other forms of sexual abuse from September 2018 until April 2019. It said the armed groups abducted girls and women to serve as wives.
It documented 30 attacks on villages in the Central Equatoria region that forced 76,000 people to flee their homes.
The report said that the violence in the Central Equatorian region is an exception to the trend of a “significant decrease in conflict-related violations and abuses” across South Sudan since the deal was signed.
“The violence has led to the displacement of more than 56,000 civilians within South Sudan, and nearly 20,000 more pushed across the border to Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” the report noted.
The report pinpointed government forces, fighters allied to Machar and rebel groups who did not sign the peace agreement, as responsible for the violent clashes to take territory in Central Equatoria.
Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth described the report as a “usual cut and paste” done by agencies working in the country.
Lul Ruai Koang, South Sudan’s military spokesman, declined to comment on the report saying he had not seen the report.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but descended into a civil war two years later when President Salva Kiir accused his first vice president, Rick Machar, of plotting a coup attempt.
The regional clashes in the country have increased manifold since President Kiir and main rebel leader Machar agreed to stop fighting in a deal signed last September. In May, the two parties agreed to give themselves six more months to form a unity government as part of the deal.
