September 19th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – Rights group, Amnesty International has voiced concerns over continuing human rights violation in South Sudan, saying parties to the conflict in the country continued committing grave human rights abuses against civilians with impunity despite the Cessation of
hostilities agreement signed in 2017.
“Parties to the conflict continue to perpetrate crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations with complete impunity, brutality and total disregard for human life. This is in spite of the December 2017 ‘Cessation of Hostilities (COH) Agreement and the June 2018 ‘Khartoum Declaration of Agreement Between Parties to the Conflict of South Sudan” said Amnesty International in a statement obtained by the Nyamilepedia.
In the statement released on Monday, the advocacy group pointed finger at the government saying that the regime has failed miserably to hold those who have committed atrocities to accountable for their actions.
“The Government of South Sudan has consistently failed to address past violations and provide any form of accountability for atrocities. The August 2015 Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCSS) provided for the establishment of a Hybrid Court for South Sudan (HCSS),” it said in a statement.
The lobby group, Amnesty International explained that it had been documenting mass human rights and international law violations, including killings of civilians, sexual violence and abduction, perpetrated deliberately by armed forces since July 2017.
“Throughout 2018, Amnesty International has continued to document grave human rights and humanitarian law violations. On our most recent mission to South Sudan in July 2018, we documented deliberate killings of civilians, sexual violence and abduction, grave violations against children, systemic looting and destruction and the use of food as a weapon of war by government forces and their allied militias during a military offensive on Leer and Mayendit Counties in southern Unity State between April and June 2018,” the statement added.
The advocacy group in the statement decried forced disappearance of members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by South Sudan former Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny,
“It has been almost two years since Dong Samuel Luak, prominent South Sudanese lawyer and human rights activist, and Aggrey Idrey, a government critic and member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-IO), went missing in Nairobi, Kenya. Credible sources indicated that they were detained by Kenyan authorities and unlawfully deported to NSS headquarters in Juba. Amnesty International received credible information that they were removed from this facility on the night of 27 January 2017. Since then, their fate and whereabouts remain unknown,” the statement said.
Human Rights abuses in the country are still on the rise, attacks on humanitarian staff have continued despite assurances by South Sudan leaders.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan chaired by Yasmin Sooka on Monday called on the African Union Commission and South Sudan Government to set up the long awaited Hybrid Court to try those who are responsible for human rights and international violations.
