Over 35,000 South Sudanese refugees have crossed to Uganda, following the fighting in South Sudan that broke out on 8 July between rival factions loyal to Salva Kiir and Riek Machar. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, civil unrest and persistent violence caused by political rivalries over the last three years has led to the displacement of almost one in four South Sudanese citizens, and it is possible that there will be over 1 million total refugees by the end of the year. The recent outburst of gunfire in the capital Juba left around 300 people dead and thousands fleeing the city. “As we move ahead, the United States and the world will be there as South Sudan lays the foundation for its future”, Clinton wrote in an editorial for the Washington Post celebrating the nation’s independence that year. The following week a senior official from his SPLM-In Opposition or SPLM-IO, Taban Deng, was sworn in as first vice president in his place.
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The council’s veto-wielding powers – the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain – are already discussing a second, more substantial USA draft resolution that would impose an arms embargo and authorize more troops, diplomats said. In a country that has only 200km of paved road, ongoing fighting and restrictions on internal flights have meant that agencies can not travel freely to deliver help, and can not restock their bases across the country with basic supplies needed to support operations and materials needed for humanitarian projects. Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang told the AP they had not received any formal complaints about the rapes, therefore could not do anything to punish the perpetrators. James Gatdet Dak, a Machar representative who won’t comment on the former insurgent’s location, said he will return once a regional force is deployed to keep the peace in the capital, a step rejected by the Defense Ministry.
On 13 July, a warehouse belonging to the WFP was looted and 4,500 metric tons of food were stolen – enough to feed 220,000 people for a month.
“One soldier came and he turned the gun to us”.
Two soldiers grabbed Sara out of a pack of women, and took her to “a small house inside Checkpoint”.
“I saw the men taking their pants off and the ladies crying inside, ” said a middle-aged woman. They are also accompanying women who venture out of the base to collect firewood and procure other items.
The report concluded that government forces use rape as “part of an intentional strategy to terrorize and punish civilians”.
“If you were a Nuer, we would have killed you”, a government soldier said to Elizabeth after he and others raped her. “They asked me, ‘Why are you staying in the [UN] compound?”
Separately, Farhan Haq, the United Nation’s spokesperson says, “I’ve been informed that the Government of South Sudan denies these memos and have said that they are fake”.
It’s unclear if government soldiers rape women due to their ethnicity.
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The UN peacekeepers “who were up [in the guard tower] could see me when they were raping me”. “The status quo is simply not enough”, said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee.
