Government soldiers carried out extensive abuses against civilians during counter-insurgency operations in South Sudanbetween December 2018 and March 2019 in Yei River state, Human Rights Watch said on June 4. The soldiers shot at civilians, looted extensively, burned homes and crops, and chased thousands of residents from their villages. Human Rights Watch also documented accounts of rape and sexual violence by soldiers
Last year, a South Sudan military court sentenced 10 soldiers to prison for raping the aid workers and murdering local journalist John Gatluak in the 2016 attack. The court also ordered the government to compensate the victims
The UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) helped in refurbishing the courthouse within its existing resources and now, at the directive of the country’s Chief Justice, the court has been set up to try serious crimes committed inside and outside the Mission’s protections sites
Following the reports, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS,) which has been tasked with the ‘Protection of Civilians’ mandate, intensified patrols in the areas where the attacks were reported to have taken place, and at the same time redeployed engineers to work on clearing roads leading to paths women used to walk to collect food