Live
Audio Only
A new report investigating the ongoing civil war in South Sudan has revealed grave human rights abuses including indiscriminate killing, rape, torture, and forced cannibalism.
Researchers found that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe both government forces and rebel groups are responsible for crimes against humanity, but not genocide, in the recent spate of intense violence that has been ongoing since the end of 2013 when internal conflict broke out in the country.
The report described attacks and abuses on both sides of the conflict as “acrimonious and brutal.” The U.N. has also deployed an investigative mission in response to reports of abuses.
Newsletter
#OHCHR deploys assessment mission to #SouthSudan following reports of #humanrights abuses: https://t.co/JazyxIUFZ7 pic.twitter.com/qqmvrHv9Nq
— UN News Centre (@UN_News_Centre)
October 26, 2015
Among the most shocking revelations of the inquiry, conducted by the African Union, are reports of forced cannibalism. In addition to “extreme cruelty” including mutilation and burning of bodies, the report documents “draining human blood from people who had just been killed and forcing others from one ethnic community to drink the blood or eat burnt human flesh.”
Other cases investigated included gender-based and sexual violence, killings, forcible occupation of homes and schools, and recruitment of child soldiers.
According to the report, “violations documented were committed in a systematic manner and in most cases with extreme brutality.”
RELATED: South Sudan, Another US Intervention Resulting in Violent Chaos
The report notes that although violence and human rights abuses have been longstanding in South Sudan for over five decades, the current conflict has seen people killed at a higher rate than during the country’s 22-year civil war.
Since the end of 2013, violence on both sides of the conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 2 million. Last week, the U.N. warned that South Sudan now faces the threat of famine as a result of ongoing conflict and called for increased access for aid organizations.
#SouthSudan: 3.9 million people face severe hunger w/ tens of 1000s on brink of famine https://t.co/tt0ticnzPF pic.twitter.com/8IirdSSSdd
— World Food Programme (@WFP)
October 28, 2015
“The commission found that the multiple conflicts and repeated violations of human rights experienced in South Sudan have wrecked relations between and among communities, and generated many victims,” the report says.
The report also includes several recommendations for addressing grave human rights abuses and ongoing civil war, including ratification of all relevant international conventions on human rights, the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate abuses, and increased humanitarian assistance for South Sudan.
