Today marks the fourth anniversary of South Sudan’s conflict. Since the war started, thousands of civilians have been raped, killed and deliberately starved.
After decades of civil war, South Sudanese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Sudan in 2011, only for their hopes of peace and prosperity to be dashed two years later. The conflict in South Sudan has devastated the lives of millions of people. Both government forces and armed opposition groups have committed violations and abuses against civilians with impunity, brutality and an utter disregard for human life.
Since the onset of the conflict, the delivery of humanitarian assistance has become increasingly difficult. Acts of obstruction have contributed significantly to civilians’ inability to access life-saving assistance and resulted in a paralysis in aid delivery. With the delivery of assistance increasingly restricted, the humanitarian situation has rapidly deteriorated. As the conflict rages on with no resolution in sight, South Sudanese civilians are in dire need of assistance and protection.
This a grave milestone should be a reminder of the urgent need to stop the ongoing violations
Sarah Jackson, Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, Amnesty International
Pervasive sexual violence
Since the start of the conflict four years ago, thousands of civilian men, women and children have been subjected to brutal forms of sexual violence, including rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation and torture and sexual humiliation.
From the first days and months of the conflict, government and opposition forces committed grave acts of sexual violence, targeting victims on the basis of their gender, ethnic and perceived political identities.
In Unity, which has experienced some of the most intensive violence during the conflict, government troops committed gruesome acts of gang rape, abducting women and keeping them as sex slaves. Between May and December 2015, one of the heaviest periods of fighting in the area, humanitarian organizations estimated that 1,200 civilians were killed, 1,430 raped, and 1,630 abducted in Leer, Koch and Mayandit.
The already high levels of sexual violence skyrocketed as the conflict spread into previously peaceful areas of the country after the signing of the August 2015 peace agreement. This is particularly accurate in the period following the clashes that re-erupted in the capital city, Juba in July 2016.
Rape as a weapon of war
Ambushed while fleeing war
Feeding the Family: Risky business
Women are particularly at risk when they venture out to look for food. Throughout the country, women often have to risk their physical integrity leaving the UN Protection of Civilians (POC) sites, or going into the outskirts of towns in search of food and other items to help their families survive. There, they risk being attacked and raped by soldiers
DISTURBING FIGURES OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Deliberate starvation
Both government and opposition forces have imposed restrictions on civilians’ access to food. The pattern of systematic and deliberate restrictions on access to food has contributed to severe food insecurity, which has become a regular feature of South Sudan. South Sudanese civilians are now facing severe food insecurity, starvation and famine. 1.25 million South Sudanese were facing starvation as of November 2017 with the UN warning of the possibility of yet another famine in 2018. Famine was initially declared in February 2017 in areas of Unity State. Today, 6 million people – around half of the population of South Sudan – are considered to be severely food insecure.
The situation has been made worse by the fact that parties to the conflict have regularly obstructed humanitarian access. At least 17 aid workers were killed in 2017 alone. Continuous fighting in various parts of the country has also forced aid workers to relocate from areas where civilians are in desperate need of assistance. Humanitarian supplies that could have saved lives and fed thousands and thousands of people have also been looted by parties to the conflict.
The largest mass exodus of people on the continent since the Rwandan genocide
South Sudan’s conflict has resulted in Africa’s biggest refugee crisis and the third largest in the world after Syria and Afghanistan. Over 1 million South Sudanese refugees have been displaced into neighbouring Uganda in the largest mass exodus on the continent since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Close to 2 million civilians are internally displaced within South Sudan, over 200,000 of whom are currently living on UN bases under protection of the peacekeeping mission.
Most of the displaced civilians interviewed by Amnesty International in South Sudan and across the border in Uganda said that they had fled primarily because of fear, because they or their relatives had been directly affected by the violence or they had witnessed attacks. Additionally, many also stated that they fled because there was no food. Amnesty International interviewed people who had spent months living in the bush, trying to remain hidden from soldiers while remaining in the vicinity of their homes and farms.
South Sudan’s conflict timeline
Tell the government of South Sudan to end the suffering
Amnesty International is calling on the South Sudanese government and the international community to put an end to the human rights violations and abuses throughout the country. In efforts to bring accountability to the people of South Sudan, they must ensure the establishment of the Hybrid Court which as agreed during the 2015 peace process.