A United Nations investigative body has warned that South Sudan risks "a return to full-scale war" unless it urgently ends entrenched impunity and widespread abuses amid escalating violence in the world's youngest country.
The report by the UN's Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (CHRSS), released on Friday at the Human Rights Council session in Geneva, found that civilians are enduring severe abuses including killings and "systematic" sexual violence, arbitrary detention, forced displacement, and deprivation amid a deepening humanitarian crisis in one of the world's most impoverished nations.
It stated that "escalating atrocity risks" and the collapse of political safeguards in the country make "urgent preventive action imperative," calling on regional and international actors to engage with diplomatic pressure, sanctions, and enforcement of the UN arms embargo until concrete improvements in human rights and accountability are achieved.
The report, based on a year of investigations and testimony, blamed the actions of political and military elites—such as detaining opposition leaders, eroding power-sharing, and attempting to alter the terms of a 2018 peace agreement—for placing the country's peace framework under major strain and increasing instability.
It noted that the arrest and removal from office of First Vice President Riek Machar last year, and his prosecution for murder, treason, and crimes against humanity, undermined "the core power-sharing guarantees" of the peace agreement and triggered "political uncertainty and armed clashes on a scale not witnessed" for a decade.
The report also highlighted that intensifying military operations have been marked by a "dangerous shift in tactics," including airstrikes on civilian-populated areas.
The CHRSS report found that conflict-related sexual violence remains a "defining and persistent feature" of the crisis, with survivor testimonies over the past decade showing "widespread and systematic patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated by all armed forces and groups."
It stated that impunity is entrenched, with senior commanders and political actors rarely held accountable for serious abuses committed on their behalf.
The commission urged the government to immediately halt violations by its forces, release those arbitrarily detained, and guarantee freedoms of expression, assembly, and association. It also called for the urgent establishment of long-delayed transitional justice mechanisms to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed since 2013.
An estimated 400,000 people were killed during five years of war fought largely along ethnic lines before calm was restored with a peace deal in 2018. However, escalating fighting in recent months has renewed fears of a return to civil war.
Source: www.aljazeera.com