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The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) must maintain the arms embargo on South Sudan, Amnesty International said today, after confirming shocking cases of extreme violence by government forces and an increase in attacks against civilians, including war crimes, nationwide in 2020.
A new Amnesty International investigation has documented a series of extrajudicial executions, forced displacement, torture and destruction of civil property by the government and former opposition forces between April and June 2020 in the state of Central Equatoria, southwest of the capital. , Juba.
The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to carry out a mid-term review of its arms embargo and other measures on South Sudan before December 15.
“Earlier this year, when South Sudanese officials called for the arms embargo to be lifted, government soldiers shot civilians, burned houses, raped women and girls, and displaced tens of thousands of people from their villages. in the south of the country “. said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern and Southern Africa.
“The atrocities of this conflict compound the decades of suffering of the millions of South Sudanese, who survived war crimes and crimes against humanity during the struggle for Sudan’s independence.
“The government of South Sudan has simply not protected its people. It would be irresponsible for the Security Council to suspend or lift the arms embargo now, in light of the horrendous human rights violations that government forces are committing.”
Clashes have continued in the southern part of the country between the rebel group known as the National Salvation Front (NAS), on the one hand, and the government’s South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and the Liberation Army of the Sudan People in Opposition (SPLA). -IO), on the other.
Murders and burning
In the state of Central Equatoria alone, Amnesty International documented 110 structures destroyed in various attacks between April and June 2020, a fraction of the total reported in local media. According to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), the states of Jonglei, Lakes, Warrap and Western Equatoria also experienced significant widespread violence during that period. Statistics revealed a 400% increase in violence compared to the same period in 2019, according to an analysis by the Stimson Center.
Amnesty International conducted 26 remote interviews with eyewitnesses and relatives of the victims, five of whom were women, from Lainya, Morobo and Yei counties in Central Equatoria state. All those interviewed requested anonymity due to the continuing threat of reprisals from government forces. Investigators also used satellite images, photos of the scene of the rapes, and open source data to verify the attacks.
Yei, Lainya and Morobo counties in southwestern South Sudan, where testimonies were collected. Four areas were analyzed with satellite images from January and June 2020 to corroborate the damage reported to the structures. More than 110 structures were razed, probably by fire, during that time period. © OCHA, Esri, Airbus DS, USGS, NGA, NASA, CGIAR, N Robinson, NCEAS, NLS, OS, NMA, Geodatastyrelsen, Rijkswaterstaat, GSA, Geoland, FEMA, Intermap, and the GIS user community
The organization interviewed six displaced people who witnessed clashes on May 9 and 10 near the villages of Lomilikin, Loka West and Kengwe in Pojulu, Lainya County. Following the clashes with the NAS, a mixed force of SSPDF and SPLA-IO soldiers searched all the villages in the area.
On the morning of May 10, government soldiers detained four men – named by the locals as Lobor, Lomiong, Sabata and Lomoro – in Kengwe and charged them with supplying food to NAS fighters. The men had their hands tied behind their backs and led to the center of the village, where approximately 20 women and children had also gathered. When a young man tried to escape, a soldier opened fire with a PKM machine gun and killed the four captives.
A witness told Amnesty International: “He shot them all dead. One of the four was shot so completely that you couldn’t recognize him. It was Lomiong. He was hit so quickly in the face and head. After all four were killed. They started shooting animals like goats and chickens. Then they set the whole area on fire. “
Satellite analysis confirmed that villages north of the Yei-Lainya highway were razed between January and June 2020. Amnesty International also examined verified photos of the four men, taken immediately after their death, and confirmed the details of their specific injuries. with several interviewees. The ACLED reported that around May 9, 11 towns in the area were burned down and an estimated total of 22,000 people were displaced.
The yellow squares highlight the areas where the structures were razed, probably by burning, approximately four kilometers northwest of Lainya in South Sudan. The images confirm that the event occurred between January 19 and June 14, 2020. More than 90 demolished structures were found between those dates in the analyzed area above Lainya. © 2020, DigitalGlobe, Inc., a Maxar company
Torture, ill-treatment and looting by government forces
Amnesty International interviewed eight survivors and witnesses of attacks on civilians and villages of Mukaya Payam in Lainya county during April. They described how government soldiers attacked residents with knives, poured boiling water on a woman, and looted houses and livestock. The soldiers accused the civilians of feeding the NAS fighters and working as their informants.
Amnesty International interviewed five people who survived an attack in Panyume Payam, Morobo county, in early June. On June 3, after clashes with NAS fighters, SPLA-IO soldiers detained and tortured to death a man named John Capo in the nearby village of Soper. Capo was a boss and leader in the area. The SPLA-IO soldiers accused him of also being a NAS commander or supporter, as he had not informed them of the impending attack.
One man, who witnessed the attack while searching for water near the military base, told Amnesty International: “The soldiers arrested Capo. They tied him up and tortured him late into the night. The man was collapsing because they cut off parts of the body and they fed him. ” him with it. In the hours that followed, they took him out, and he died in the bush. “
Three other witnesses confirmed the gruesome details of the mutilation, including the cut off of Capo’s ear and genitals, and that high-ranking SPLA-IO commanders were present while torturing him. He was reportedly left to bleed to death in the bush, and his body was discovered by villagers several days later.
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“Our investigation reveals that SSPDF and SPLA-IO soldiers routinely violate international humanitarian law and fail to protect civilians. As these horrific attacks continue, it is critical that the United Nations Security Council demand that South Sudan put an end to these war crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice, while maintaining the arms embargo on the country, ”said Deprose Muchena.
Background
In April 2020, Amnesty International released evidence from South Sudan of freshly imported small arms and ammunition, illicit concealment of weapons and diversion of armored vehicles for military uses that were not approved by arms transfer licenses.
A number of bodyguards of prominent government generals and opposition forces, who would have access to the newly acquired weapons for the first time, carried models of Eastern European weapons never before documented in South Sudan. Amnesty International believes that these weapons were brought into South Sudan in violation of the arms embargo.
On May 29, the United Nations Security Council renewed the arms embargo for one more year by a vote of 12-0. Only Russia, China and South Africa abstained. By December 15, the United Nations Security Council must conduct a mid-term review of the arms embargo against the progress made in implementing all provisions of the revitalized 2018 peace agreement and accession. to a ceasefire. The UNSC will also consider how to develop benchmarks against which to review the arms embargo in May 2021.
Amnesty International calls on the United Nations Security Council to prioritize consideration of the state’s appalling human rights record, not simply the piecemeal implementation of the provisions of the revitalized 2018 peace agreement.
