South Sudanese troops assault civilians during conflict

Witnesses and civilian leaders have accused South Sudanese soldiers of raping dozens of women and girls who sought refuge earlier this month from renewed fighting in the country’s ongoing civil conflict.

Reports described several assaults that occurred close to a UN camp in the capital, Juba, where many women and girls took shelter. Other incidents happened in other parts of Juba when people began to leave the camp in search of food as the conflict subsided.

In one instance, a group of women on their way to buy food passed by some soldiers at an area called Checkpoint. One woman said several soldiers pulled aside two of the women and two underage girls and gang-raped them in a shop. One of the girls later died.

“I saw the men taking their trousers off and the ladies crying inside,” the middle-aged woman said amid tears. “They said, ‘this one belongs to me, this one belongs to me.’”

Another group of four women walking along the same route on a different occasion said the soldiers gang-raped one of them and made the remaining women wait outside. The witnesses claimed UN peacekeepers witnessed some of the assaults without intervening.

The UN is investigating the peacekeepers’ inaction, said spokeswoman Shantal Persaud. The UN said yesterday it has recorded at least 120 sexual assault cases since the renewed fighting. During the clashes this month, civilians also accused peacekeepers of failing to protect them when attackers struck a UN camp.

“The mission takes very seriously allegations of peacekeepers not rendering aid to civilians in distress,” Persaud said.

Heavy clashes took place three weeks ago between troops loyal to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and those aligned with former Vice President Riek Machar. The violence killed more than 200 people and displaced many others. Kiir appointed a new vice president on Monday after Machar, who recently went into hiding, failed to return despite Kiir’s ultimatum.

Several Nuer women said Dinka soldiers threatened to kill them because of their ethnicity and accused them of an alliance with Machar, who is also a Nuer. Protection Cluster, an aid group that tracks violence against South Sudanese civilians, said it has received at least two confirmed deaths in sexual abuse cases. The aid group confirmed the claims made by the Nuer women.

“Nuer men and women appear to have been targeted, and would reportedly be killed (or raped and then killed in the case of women) on the spot if they were discovered,” the aid group said in a statement.

The UN said it has set up patrols around the camp and has provided protection for people who have to leave the camp. But some civilians and aid groups have called on the UN to enforce more frequent patrols.