Pro-government militias in South Sudan are allowing soldiers to rape women as payment, the UN rights office has claimed.

In a new report, the rights office described the country as ‘one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world’, and extensively outlined how women were routinely raped by soldiers as payment for their services.


‘The assessment team received information that the armed militias… who carry out attacks together with the SPLA (South Sudanese army) commit violations under an agreement of ‘do what you can and take what you can’, the report 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 contained detailed testimonies from rape victims in the country, who bravely recalled their harrowing ordeals.

The report said: ‘One woman explained how, eight months pregnant, she was severely beaten to the point that she began to hemorrhage and had a miscarriage. She added that she was then forced to immediately carry heavy goods.


‘Other women described being beaten with sticks and gun butts. One woman explained that her beating lasted more than one hour, “the men told me to lie down and when I refused they beat me and all three forced themselves on me.”‘
The report also described how some women were even physically sick as they recalled their horrific ordeals.


‘On one occasion an older woman became physically ill as she recalled events that had taken place; the interview was immediately stopped’, the report claimed.


‘Some survivors and witnesses gave testimonies of women being raped in front of their family members, or in front of their neighbors and friends, resulting not only in physical harm to the victim but also additional psychological trauma.’

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has since warned that brutal rapes were being used as a systematic ‘instrument of terror and weapon of war.’

The latest revelation about human rights abuses in South Sudan comes in the same week that Amnesty International accused South Sudan government forces of deliberately suffocating more than 60 men and boys in a shipping container.



Violence in South Sudan - a brief history according to the Council on Foreign

Relations

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 1.6 million have been internally displaced since civil war broke out in South Sudan in December 2013. Under the threat of international sanctions and following several rounds of negotiations supported by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development(IGAD), President Salva Kiir signed a peace agreement with rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar on August 26.

The latest deal remains fragile, as clashes continue and both sides have blamed the other for violating the cease-fire. After the leaders failed to reach an agreement by the deadline in March 2015, South Sudanese lawmakers again postponed elections and extended President Kiir’s term; elections are now slated for 2018. The peace talks, which began in January 2014, have resulted in several agreements, but both parties to the conflict and other splintering factions repeatedly violate the cease-fires.

Armed groups, including the government’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), have committed widespread violence against civilians, especially women and children, humanitarian workers, and peacekeepers. As of July 2015, more than 166,000 people are seeking protection on UN bases, which have become displacement-like settlements known as Protection of Civilian sites, in areas such as Bentiu, Juba, and Malakal.

The organisation claims that 23 witnesses in the villages of Luale and Leer saw the men and boys being forced into the container with their hands tied, or saw their bodies being later dragged away and dumped.

The report said: ‘Witnesses described hearing the detainees crying and screaming in distress and banging on the walls of the shipping container, which they said had no windows or other form of ventilation.’


The newly formed country gained independence from Sudan in 2011 – but descended into civil war in December 2013, setting off widespread violence that has dogged the country ever since.

http://www.omobasblog.com/2016/03/soldiers-in-south-sudan-are-allowed-to.html#more

Africans really need to change their mentality.

South sudan is a horrible story!

This was a conutry dat insisted on independence from sudan to stop a 20 yr civil war, only to start a new war after 17months!!

I hope useless Igbos are reading this. The biafra they seek, may only be another senseless killing field!


God help africa!

THIS IS HORRIBLE BRO!

CURSED CONTINENT!

what is wrong with Africa?

See how the black man treats his fellow? All for power and Money. God dey too delay things O. Come quickly make we rest.