Juba, South – South Sudan’s leaders are fuelling violence and instability in the young nation, a critical United Nations report said Friday.
The oil-rich but impoverished country, which achieved independence in 2011, is plagued by frequent clashes and political infighting.
Clashes broke out earlier this month in two regions, killing civilians and wounding a peacekeeper, with Human Rights Watch recently noting an “alarming surge of violence”.
The 24-page UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan report — which draws from 2024 independent UN investigations, meetings with local officials, open-source material and forensic information — “reveals how political and military elites continue to fuel violence and instability”.
Yasmin Sooka, who chairs the commission, condemned leaders who “continue their violent contestations across the country and are abjectly failing the people of South Sudan”.
The commission’s investigation identified similar patterns of “gross violations” in 2024, “often implicating the same public and military offices”.
“Sexual violence persists both in and outside conflicts, even as senior officials continue to endorse extrajudicial killings, and the forced recruitment and abduction of boys and girls into combat or sexual slavery continue unchecked,” she said.
The report found conflict-related sexual violence remained “systemic, brutal and widespread” with leaders failing to protect the country’s next generation, Sooka said.
“These acts constitute grave violations of international law, yet the perpetrators continue to operate with impunity.”
The report also noted that despite South Sudan’s government revenue between 2022-2024 being estimated at $3.5 billion, there had been no progress on reconstructing schools, hospitals or courts, with civil servants remaining unpaid.
“Financing essential services and rule of law institutions requires an end to the corruption,” said Carlos Castresana Fernandez, a member of the commission.
It also touched on the 2018 transition agreement, which ended the five-year civil war between President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar.
In September last year, the government announced another two-year delay of polls, blaming a lack of funds.
“Without addressing this systemic looting, no peace agreement will ever translate into meaningful change,” Fernandez said.
© Agence France-Presse
