The South Sudanese army and allied militia committed war crimes and serious human rights violations during attacks on villages in Leer and Mayendit Counties of Southern Liech State between late April and July this year, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
The rights organisation said the violations occurred when government soldiers and allied militias launched a military offensive against opposition-held areas of Southern Liech State.
In a report released on Wednesday, Amnesty International documented the accounts of 100 displaced people who described horrific accounts of killings, rape burning of homes and people.
According to the witnesses, many people were killed by gun fire, but others were burned alive in their homes, hung from trees and rafters, or run over with armoured vehicles. Civilians were also hunted down and killed after fleeing into nearby swamps. Women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities were not spared.
Government troops, according to the report also abducted and raped women and girls with many sustaining serious injuries, while those who resisted were killed.
"The attackers also engaged in a widespread campaign of looting and destruction, setting fire to civilian homes, looting and burning food supplies, stealing cattle and other livestock, as well as civilian property. These abuses appear to have been carried out with the purpose of forcibly displacing civilians and making villages uninhabitable in the future," Amnesty International said.
The rights body blamed the continued impunity in parts of former Unity state including murder of civilians, systematic rape of women and girls and massive looting and destruction was driven by the authorities’ failure to prosecute or remove suspected war criminals.
A 2016 report by Amnesty International documented violations that took place during the previous military offensive on southern areas of the state, including Leer county and identified four individuals suspected of being responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the government failed to act on the report.
“It’s impossible to ignore the cruel reality – if the South Sudanese authorities had acted on our warnings back in 2016, this latest wave of violence against civilians in Leer and Mayendit might have been avoided,” said Joanne Mariner, Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International.
“The only way to break this vicious cycle of violence is to end the impunity enjoyed by South Sudanese fighters on all sides. The government must ensure that civilians are protected and that those responsible for such heinous crimes are held to account,” she added.
Amnesty International called on South Sudan government to end all the abuses and to expedite the establishment of the Hybrid Court. It also urged the United Nations Security Council to enforce the long overdue arms embargo adopted in July.