A UN report describing sweeping crimes like children and the disabled being burned alive and fighters being allowed to rape women as payment shows South Sudan is facing one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world.
The UN Human Rights Chief, Zeid Raad al-Hussein lamented the crisis in the nearly 5-year-old country has been largely overlooked by the international community, and his office said attacks against civilians, forced disappearances, rape and other violations could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The U.N report released on Friday is the work of an assessment team deployed in South Sudan between October and January, and says “state actors” bear most responsibility for the crimes. The UN Security Council considers expanding sanctions already in place by imposing a ‘comprehensive arms embargo’ on South Sudan and consider referring the matter to the International Criminal Court if other judicial avenues fail.
In scorching detail, the report cited cases of parents being forced to watch their children being raped, and said investigators had received information that some armed militias affiliated with government forces raided cattle, stole personal property, raped and abducted women and girls as a type of payment.
The quantity of rapes and gang-rapes described in the report must only be a snapshot of the real total. This is one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world, with massive use of rape as an instrument of terror and weapon of war, yet it has been more or less off the international radar.Zeid Raad al-Hussein, UN Human Rights Chief, Sudan
The human rights situation has ‘dramatically deteriorated’ since South Sudan erupted into civil war in December 2013. The crisis stemmed from a falling-out between President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar, that boiled over into an armed rebellion. Tens of thousands have died and at least 2 million people have been displaced from their homes.
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