Foreign Minister Brende condemns the extensive abuses documented in a new UN report on the war in southern Sudan.
On Friday the UN human rights council stated that Southern Sudan has one of the world’s worst human rights situations.
The UN body’s report on the situation in the country in 2015 states that both government troops and rebels are accused of war crimes, but that the government is behind most of the crimes and gravest crimes.
Among other things, government soldiers and pro-government militias are encouraged to rape civilian women instead of getting paid wages.
– Tragic testimony
– The report reveals horrendous stories about how civilians, including children and the disabled, who supported the opposition, were burnt alive, suffocated in containers, shot, hanged or chopped into pieces by pro-government forces, says UN human legal advice in a statement Friday.
– We take the High Commissioner’s report very seriously and condemn these gross acts strongly. The report is a tragic testimony of how important it is that the conflict ends, said Mr Brende.
People Groups
The civil war in southern Sudan erupted in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked vice president Riek Machar. The two mobilized the ethnic groups they belong to, Dinka and Nuer respectively, against each other and bloody battles broke out.
A peace agreement was signed in August last year, but this has been frequently violated. UN reports that abuses continue despite the agreement
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
