South Sudan Human Rights Monitor (July-August 2020)

This report is based on research conducted onsite in South Sudan by internationally trained local monitors working for a national human rights organization. The monitors and the organization must remain anonymous given present security concerns. The information reported meets the threshold for initiating an investigation before a judicial mechanism, as there is a reasonable basis to believe that the following incidents occurred.

Introduction

Civilians in South Sudan continue to be displaced by and suffer from widespread human rights abuses and crimes, including sexual and gender-based, political, and ethnic violence. These human rights violations and crimes have been ongoing since the beginning of the conflict in South Sudan. During this reporting period, local monitors working anonymously in Juba, Yei (Equatoria Region), Bentiu, Malakal (Greater Upper Nile Region), Rumbek, Tonj, and Wau (Bahr el Ghazal Region) have detailed at least 36 incidents of human rights abuses and crimes against civilians, including rape, sexual violence, killing, torture, abduction, ill-treatment, forced disappearance, forced displacement, arbitrary arrest, and detention. This Newsletter addresses incidents recorded by local monitors from July 1 to August 30, 2020. Since the last report, the local monitors have faced challenges with mobility and accessing witnesses because of the travel restrictions and lockdowns instituted by the South Sudanese Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In our last Newsletter, we noted that all South Sudanese parties had unanimously agreed to a six-month extension of the pre-transition period for the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), dated September 12, 2018. Therefore, the new deadline for the implementation of the Agreement was to be November 2019. However, during the first few months of the extended pre-transition period, limited progress had been made, notwithstanding advances towards the fulfillment of pre-transition tasks, such as the submission of the report of the Independent Boundaries Commission, the drafting of key legislation, and planning for the transitional security arrangements. While the R-ARCSS addressed the armed conflict at a national level, less attention has been focused on the local level.

The humanitarian situation in South Sudan remains dire. Intercommunal violence, the COVID-19 pandemic, and seasonal floods continue to drive the need for assistance. According to the report of the U.N Secretary-General, 150,000 people were displaced internally as a result of clashes between armed youth groups in Jonglei and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, with another 7,000 people provided with physical protection at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) base adjacent to Pibor. Armed conflicts in Central and Western Equatoria and Warrap displaced thousands of civilians. Furthermore, as documented by the local monitors, tensions between government and opposition forces persist, while ongoing violence and serious human rights violations against civilians continue to cause suffering.

Read the full report here: South Sudan Human Rights Monitor