South Sudan: UN probe team’s findings should be world’s wake-up call to address human rights catastrophe

Responding to today’s UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan report detailing horrific human rights violations committed by soldiers in South Sudan, Seif Magango, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said:

“The report’s findings of yet more acts of shocking brutality, including men being castrated, women gang raped, children forced to watch their mothers being raped and boys forced to rape their family members, should jolt the world into speedy action to address the horrific human rights violations that have continued unabated for four years of conflict in South Sudan,

The report's findings … demonstrate the critical need to establish the Hybrid Court for South Sudan

Seif Magango, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes

“They demonstrate the critical need to establish the Hybrid Court for South Sudan and to renew the UN Commission on Human Rights’ mandate, which is due to expire in March. The human rights catastrophe in South Sudan must remain firmly on the world’s radar if a solution is to be found.”

The report is a culmination of months of research by UN investigators into gross human rights violations and abuses in South Sudan.

Amnesty International has previously documented cases of sexual violence in the conflict in South Sudan, including in this report from July 2017.