A report released on Tuesday accused the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) of killing civilians, looting and destroying villages and displacing over 100,000 people.
Human rights abuses including the rape and immolation of women and children were recorded in the testimonies of 115 victims and eyewitnesses from different counties.
Emphasising the need to ensure accountability, the UN Secretary General’s representative, who also leads the UN Mission to South Sudan, Ellen Margrethe Loj, said,
“Revealing the truth of what happened offers the best hope for ensuring the accountability for such terrible violence and ending the cycle of impunity that allows these abuses to continue. We call on the SPLA to fulfill its commitment and allow our human rights officers unfettered access to the sites of these reported violations.”
“The recent upsurge has not only been marked by allegations of killing, rape, abduction, looting, arson and displacement, but by a new brutality and intensity. The Scope and level of cruelty that has characterised the reports suggests a depth of antipathy that exceeds political differences,” said the UNMISS report.