The police in South Sudan’s Warrap State over the weekend said they have recorded 30 cases of gender-based violence (GBV), including 3 cases of unnatural offenses, since January 2023.
According to an official, bad cultural practices like early and forced marriages contributed to the spike in cases.
Major Andrea Santino Kuot, the director of the police’s crime unit in Warrap State, told Radio Tamazuj that 24 cases of rape were recorded between January to March and 6 more rape cases were recorded in April.
He said both three cases of homosexuality were also documented and that the perpetrators were apprehended and produced in the High Court.
“The cases of gender-based violence from January to April 2023 totaled 30 and this record includes three cases of homosexuality. From January to March, the suspects were all arraigned before and sentenced by the High Court judge but s suspects arrested in April are in the process of high court proceedings,” he said. “In detail, we recorded 7 rape cases in January, 8 rape cases in February, and 9 in March while in April there were 6 rape cases recorded by the Police Crime Unit (PCU).”
“These cases include 3 homosexual cases in which male adults molested underage boys,” Major Kuot added.
He said some cases were directly reported to their office by relatives of victims while other cases were transferred from local courts to the police for further investigation before being forwarded to the High Court for trial.
Meanwhile, James Akok Akok, the Kuajok Town Bench Court chief, confirmed that his court has tried several gender-based violence cases since the start of the year.
“We have recorded five cases of gender-based violence so far in our Bench Court of young girls aged 15 and 16 who were molested and I sent the serious cases to Justice Malou of the Warrap High Court for legal proceedings,” he said. “Three women bludgeoned their husbands’ heads and this is also related to rape. Another three men also were stabbed by their wives. I tried these six cases though some relatives insisted on withdrawing some cases.”
“Many cases are related to the Dinka their neighbors’ tradition of early and forced marriages but we settled some of the cases successfully while other cases were solved through a divorce,” Chief Akok added.
Warrap State is largely inhabited by the Dinka as the majority ethnic group followed by Bongo in Tonj South County and neighboring Luo (Jurchol) in Western and Northern Bahr El Ghazal states.