UN experts attending the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) conference in London have said that if the Government of South Sudan is serious about tackling sexual violence, it should immediately remove from office and investigate governors and county commissioners credibly alleged to be complicit in systematic rape.

A delegation from the Government of South Sudan is also attending the conference, according to a press release issued by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.

“Nowhere in the world do you find so many women who experience conflict by being repeatedly gang-raped, year after year since 2013, shunned and stigmatized, suffering in silence, while the men responsible are promoted and rewarded,” said the Chairperson of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka. “It is meaningless for the Government to come up with an array of declarations, national commitments, pledges, and plans if no action is taken against those in high office who are responsible for the repeated violence against women and girls. It is not enough, now and again, to try a handful of junior officers without holding those in command responsible.”

According to the statement, South Sudan has made repeated commitments to tackle sexual violence, nevertheless, being gang raped is still one of the main ways in which women and girls experience the ongoing conflicts, with the vast majority of cases unreported because of fear of rejection by families and communities.

“This year we have seen the most dehumanizing sexual violence in South Sudan for which the Government bears responsibility because of its failure over many years to hold individuals accountable, especially in Unity State where we are dealing with gross and systematic human rights violations amounting to international crimes,” said Commissioner Andrew Clapham. “South Sudanese are begging the international community to help them in pressuring their leaders to sanction these individuals and remove the people responsible from office.  Tragically victims ask us to speak out and say what they are afraid to say.”

The UN Commission said it has reasonable grounds to believe that earlier this year a government-appointed county commissioner in the oil-rich Unity State was present overseeing systematic gang rapes at a cantonment site.

“This was part of a well-planned scorched earth offensive against civilians in an area considered loyal to the opposition, that involved beheadings, with rape victims being forced to carry the severed heads, victims being burnt alive, and days of brutal sexual assault by up to ten men at a time against young women and girls some as young as 9 years old,” the statement said. “Multiple eyewitnesses testified that the county commissioner planned and ordered the attacks led by his deputy, which followed strikingly similar patterns in different areas. In several cases, the women knew their rapists who openly revealed they were ordered to commit the atrocities by the County commissioner and his Deputy.”

The UN Commission earlier published details alleging that the same commissioner instigated attacks against civilians in 2018 and was briefly put under house arrest but then reinstated.

“Conflict-related rape and sexual violence in Unity State has become so systematic and is a direct result of impunity; the Commission will engage with the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, and the Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide on how to hold perpetrators accountable, building on the 2014 joint communiqué,” said UN Commissioner, Barney Afako.

The UN said that impunity for sexual violence cuts across all the political factions and actors in South Sudan with the opposition appointing as governor of Western Equatoria, a militia leader turned military officer with command responsibility in 2018 for the abduction, rape, torture and sexual slavery of more than 400 women and girls.

“This is in spite of the opposition initiating an investigation into the incident,” the statement said. “Unsurprisingly the newly appointed Governor did nothing to stop a fresh onslaught against civilians that used rape as a weapon of war to forcibly displace populations.”

The UN Commission on Human Rights is mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to collect and preserve evidence for use in a future Hybrid Court, the establishment of which has been delayed for many years.