A 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by three government soldiers in Lata village of Lasu payam in Yei River County last week.

Felix Amule, the administrator of the defunct Yei River State, told Radio Tamazuj on Thursday that local community leaders and the girl’s family reported the June 6 incident to his office on June 9.

“Some of our unprofessional soldiers from Lasu went into the community and caused a lot of harassment, including gang-raping a 14-year-old girl. This message came to my office, and the act was condemned by the girl’s relatives, paramount chief and the Member of Parliament for Lasu when we met,” he explained.

Amule revealed that one of the suspected soldiers has been arrested and would be arraigned before the military court.

“We shared this with the brigade commander of [the defunct] Yei River State and one culprit, out of the three, has been arrested while the other two are being searched. At the end of the day, they will all be brought to the military barracks as we wait for the court martial to take place as soon as possible,” he said.

The local official appealed to the national government to constitute a military court in Yei and appoint a judge to try sexual offense cases.

“We have for a long period of time advocated for a military court judge to be brought and based in Yei because we have registered over 47 cases of atrocities committed by some of our soldiers. I believe this is not a good thing because it is within the mandate to protect people and their properties,” he stressed.

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on TUESDAY expressed concern about rising cases of rape and sexual violence against women and girls, and destruction of properties in Central Equatoria.

South Sudan laws provide for protection of women and girls from sexual abuse, exploitation and gender-based violence, including rape, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.