Growing violence in South Sudan is putting the country at risk of sliding back into full-scale civil war, a regional rights body has warned.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights said indiscriminate attacks and inflammatory ethnic rhetoric are creating a dangerous environment for civilians.
In a statement released on Wednesday through its Country Rapporteur, Commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso, the Commission expressed alarm over escalating clashes in Jonglei State between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition, and allied militias.
The confrontations, it noted, have included aerial strikes and other assaults that put women, children, and other residents at serious risk.
“The Commission also deplores that the escalating hostilities involving large-scale mobilisation by armed militias and opposition forces in South Sudan, accompanied by inflammatory and ethnically charged rhetoric, have put South Sudan on a footing for the occurrence of mass atrocities and the relapse of the country back to full-scale civil war,” the Commission said.
The body strongly condemned public statements that encourage violence along ethnic lines, warning that such language, together with large-scale armed mobilisation, could spark mass atrocities.
A recent video released over the weekend showed Lieutenant General Johnson Thabo, commander of the Agwelek militia and assistant army chief for mobilisation, directing government troops to “spare no lives” and target homes as they advanced toward Jonglei to counter a rebel offensive.
“The Commission recalls that under the African Charter, the state bears primary responsibility not only for acts of violations directly attributable to it, but also those acts of violations that result from its failure to protect citizens from the violent acts of non-state actors,” it said.
“Attacks, threats, and incitement directed at civilians constitute grave violations of the fundamental rights enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”
The Commission outlined urgent steps for South Sudan to reduce the threat, including an immediate stop to attacks on civilians, public condemnation of ethnic violence, and halting the rising hostilities that threaten peace.
It also urged the government to restart political dialogue with the SPLA-IO in coordination with the African Union and the United Nations, aiming to resume the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan.
“The African Commission will continue to monitor the situation closely and avails itself to engage with the Government of South Sudan to assist and ensure that effective steps are taken to implement the foregoing and related measures to end violence against civilians and the attendant human rights violations,” it said.
