South Sudan: UN must renew arms embargo amid persistent impunity and ongoing sexual violence.
M2 PRESSWIRE-May 18, 2022-: South Sudan: UN must renew arms embargo amid persistent impunity and ongoing sexual violence
(C)1994-2022 M2 COMMUNICATIONS
RDATE:18052022
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
South Sudan - The United Nations Security Council must renew its arms embargo on the territory of South Sudan amid the states failure to ensure accountability for conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and to protect survivors, witnesses and judicial actors, Amnesty International said today in a new report.
The report, If you don't cooperate, I'll gun you down: conflict-related sexual violence and impunity in South Sudan, reveals how CRSV is ongoing in the country, and how guns can be used to facilitate sexual violence. It also reveals how two sections of an action plan that was drafted to address CRSV in the country, adopted by the government in January 2021, are yet to be fully implemented. On 28 May 2021, the UN Security Council renewed its arms embargo on the territory of South Sudan, which it first imposed in 2018, and identified the implementation of the 2021 action plan as one of five benchmarks against which renewal of the arms embargo would be reviewed in May 2022. Amnesty International has documented over a dozen cases of conflict-related sexual violence from recent years, including women who were raped at gunpoint. The UN Security Council must therefore renew its arms embargo on the territory of South Sudan, said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty Internationals Director for East and Southern Africa.
Our new report highlights the urgent need for thorough, independent and impartial investigations into these crimes. The perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence must face justice; widespread impunity for these offences must come to an end.
CRSV survivors told Amnesty International that they were raped by a wide range of individuals, including government soldiers; a member of the National Security Service (NSS); members of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) the main armed opposition group the National Salvation Front (NAS) a non-state armed group that refused to sign the 2018 peace deal; armed men; rebels, and unarmed men; including teenage boys.
Three survivors said they were abducted and made to carry out forced labour or used as sex slaves for between two and four years. Three survivors told Amnesty International that they gave birth after being raped.
Angelina* told Amnesty International that, in February 2022...
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