A South Sudan Human Rights Commission official says large-scale intercommunal violence is “claiming lives,” “displacing hundreds of thousands and destroying their properties and livelihoods.”
Beny Gideon Mabor made the comments in a statement delivered during a meeting of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, Gambia, on Sunday.
It marks the first statement from the South Sudan human rights body acknowledging the gravity of the ongoing violence in the country.
The statement also recognized that the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement which was signed in September 2018 to end five years of the conflict “remains slow”.
There was also a warning about how “communal violence threatens total breakdown of social fabric amongst and between ethnic groups with no history of violence between them.
“The Jieeng (Dinka) ethnic communities of Twic and Ngok of Bahr El-Ghazal region are attacking each other in scale and brutality never seen before. The Shilluk and Nuer ethnic groups in Upper Nile are also fighting each other, same as worrisome tensions between the Murle and the Jieeng in Jonglei State, respectively,” Mr Gideon continued. He said this unprecedented surge in violence requires the swift deployment of the necessary unified forces to protect civilians and their properties.
Late month, a UN panel of experts on human rights in South Sudan said incidents of rape had become common in the country, and women who are victims were no longer bothering to report repeated sexual violence.
However, Mr Gideon did not highlight sexual violence in his presentation.