By Tigere Chagutah
Ten years ago today, just two years after independence and following decades of conflict with the North, South Sudan descended into an armed conflict pitting forces loyal to President Salva Kiir Mayardit against his then Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon.
In the decade-long conflict, estimated to have claimed 400,000 lives and displaced millions, Amnesty International has documented violations of international humanitarian law and gross human rights abuses by all sides. These include mass killings, rape and other conflict-related sexual violence, abduction, the recruitment of children into armed forces and groups as well as the burning and looting of civilian infrastructure.
Despite the signing of peace pacts to end the conflict, first in 2015, followed by the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), and most recently, the 2022 Roadmap to extend the transitional period, each including a commitment to hold perpetrators to account, the wait for justice continues
Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International's Regional Director, East and Southern Africa
Despite the signing of peace pacts to end the conflict, first in 2015, followed by the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), and most recently, the 2022 Roadmap to extend the transitional period, each including a commitment to hold perpetrators to account, the wait for justice continues. This lack of accountability has led to near total impunity for serious human rights abuses as witnessed in conflicts in Upper Nile and Unity States and the two administrative regions of Abyei and Pibor, where thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds killed due to the fighting between different armed groups.
A year after the conflict began, the African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan, created to investigate human rights violations following the outbreak of violence, recommended the establishment of a hybrid judicial mechanism to bring those responsible for human rights abuses since December 2013 to justice. The recommendation was later adopted in the 2015 Peace Agreement and again in the 2018 R-ARCSS.
Nine years later, the court is yet to be set up. Neither the African Union nor the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity seem keen on making progress on the hybrid court. Accountability and justice for victims and survivors remain elusive.
As South Sudan prepares for the country’s first elections in December 2024 to end the transition period, it is essential that justice and accountability are addressed. The same protagonists, President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar, whose forces began the fighting 10 years ago, are likely to be leading electoral contenders.
Experience in the last decade has shown that the continued failure to put in place mechanisms to address past crimes and human rights abuses has led to new cycles of violence and abuse. Regional and international actors must keep a close eye on South Sudan over the coming months.
This is the time to demand political will to implement justice and accountability mechanisms, especially the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, because victims and survivors of atrocities cannot wait another ten years for justice and accountability.
Tigere Chagutah
This is the time to demand political will to implement justice and accountability mechanisms, especially the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, because victims and survivors of atrocities cannot wait another ten years for justice and accountability.
This oped first ran in Kenya’s Daily Nation on 15 December 2023.