UN panel accuses South Sudan officials of overseeing gang rapes

United Nations experts have called on authorities in South Sudan to investigate officials accused of overseeing systematic gang rapes, some of whose victims were girls as young as nine.

The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said on Monday that it had reasonable grounds to believe a county commissioner in the northern oil-rich state of Unity orchestrated gang rapes at a military camp.

The documented abuses also involved beheadings, rape victims forced to carry the severed heads, victims being burned alive and days of brutal sexual assaults, the UN experts said in a statement.

“Conflict-related rape and sexual violence in Unity State has become so systematic and is a direct result of impunity,” commission member Barney Afako said.

Investigators say sexual abuse has been used as a weapon by all sides in South Sudan’s civil conflict, which erupted in 2013 and triggered Africa’s biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

In the abuses outlined in Unity, multiple witnesses said the state official planned and ordered the attacks, which were led by his deputy and followed strikingly similar patterns in different areas, according to the UN statement.

The documented abuses also involved beheadings, rape victims forced to carry the severed heads, victims being burned alive and days of brutal sexual assaults, the UN experts said in a statement.

“Conflict-related rape and sexual violence in Unity State has become so systematic and is a direct result of impunity,” commission member Barney Afako said.

Investigators say sexual abuse has been used as a weapon by all sides in South Sudan’s civil conflict, which erupted in 2013 and triggered Africa’s biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

In the abuses outlined in Unity, multiple witnesses said the state official planned and ordered the attacks, which were led by his deputy and followed strikingly similar patterns in different areas, according to the UN statement.