By Magdalene Mukami
NAIROBI, Kenya
The Human Rights Watch has accused the South Sudanese government of grave human rights violations in a new report.
According to the report released Wednesday, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) committed sexual violence, killed innocent civilians and destroyed villages during their military campaign in late April this year in Unity State.
The organization said that it had documented more than 30 killings on Mayendit and Nyal towns after the South Sudanese military incursion in May this year. Moreover, the report said that after the fighting in the area ended, military vehicles ran over innocent fleeing civilians.
“Witnesses described soldiers shooting at civilians as they tried to flee, both during periods of fighting between the SPLA and local armed civilians with some IO forces and after fighting had ended. Other civilians were said to have been crushed by tanks,” the report said.
A woman from Rubichier village told the Human Rights Watch that the soldiers were so savage that they ran over their tanks over dead civilians to make sure no one was left alive.
“They were running with the tanks after the people and then after they hit them they would roll back over them to confirm that they were dead. After I saw this I ran and escaped,” she said
Those who survived the powerful metal treads of the tank were either shot by soldiers who were on foot or arrested, tortured then killed.
The Human Rights Watch has called on government officials, including Chief of Staff Paul Malong to be investigated for their roles in the brutal killings and sexual offences in South Sudan.
Human Rights Watch Africa Director Daniel Bekele said that the attacks on innocent civilians were shocking and savage.
“Government-aligned forces carried out gruesome killings and widespread rapes and burned countless homes as they swept across large parts of Unity State,” Bekele said.
“The devastating offensive in Unity State is the latest in a conflict characterized by shocking disregard for civilian life,” he said.
“Women and girls are bearing the brunt of this brutal offensive as fighters target them for rape, abduction, beatings, and forced labor,” he added.
Bekele accused the government of plotting to forcefully evict civilians from Unity State.
“Brutal attacks on fleeing civilians combined with widespread burning of villages, food, and other items that people need to survive suggests that the government’s aim was to forcibly displace people from their homes,” he added.
