UN calls for forces to prevent genocide in South Sudan

The United Nations human rights commission this week called for the immediate deployment of a 4,000-member protection force to South Sudan to prevent a looming genocide in the war-torn country.

South Sudanese officials first agreed to the additional force in September. At the time, the UN Security Council mandated the additional troops be based in the capital, Juba. But on Wednesday, Yasmin Sooka, the UN commission’s chairwoman, called for the force’s immediate deployment and asked for its presence across the country.

“South Sudan stands on the brink of an all-out ethnic civil war, which could destabilize the entire region,” Sooka said.

Sudan’s conflict began in 2013 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar. The opposing forces signed a peace deal last year, but the fighting has persisted. Thousands of people have died, and the conflict has displaced more than 2 million people.

Earlier this month, the UN warned that South Sudanese forces are directly targeting civilians in the country’s Central Equatoria state. Sooka said ethnic cleansing is already underway in parts of the country, incidents of gang rape are on the rise, and the fighting is expected to escalate in the upcoming dry season. More than 150,000 people have fled the once peaceful town of Yei for Uganda.

Peter Ajak, senior adviser at the International Growth Center, said the spread of the conflict has made the need for the protection force even greater.

“The challenge is 4,000 is not going to be enough,” Ajak said. “They need to review the mandate to increase the troops so they can operate with the confidence needed to prevent a genocide.”

The UN children’s agency yesterday said the increasing conflict has renewed the use of child soldiers. New figures released by the agency revealed armed groups have recruited 1,300 child soldiers this year, bringing the total number of child soldiers since the start of the conflict to 17,000.

Sooka urged the African Union and South Sudan to create a hybrid court that will gather and preserve evidence while prosecuting atrocities. UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said the court could also serve as a preventive measure.

“The knowledge that accountability structures exist and will be deployed against the perpetrators of mass atrocities can have a real preventive impact,” Al Hussein said.

The warring factions agreed last year to set up a court backed by the African Union, but nothing has been done.

A hybrid court would serve as an accountability mechanism, Ajak agreed, and called on the UN to begin collecting evidence.

“There is no other way forward,” he said. “The history of South Sudan is that in every single conflict, there has never been any accountability.”