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Summary ‘The leaders of the SPLA factions must address their own human rights problems and correct their own abuses or risk a continuation of the war on tribal or political grounds in the future, even if they win autonomy or separation.’ –Human Rights Watch 1994 report ‘Civilian Destruction’ The first months of South Sudan’s new war were distinguished less by fierce battles between fighting forces than by horrific attacks on civilians often because of their ethnicity and presumed allegiances. In many cases fighting forces have retreated at the threat of attack by the other side, leaving civilians behind to bear the brunt. Government and SPLA/M-in Opposition (the opposition) forces have, together with allied forces, since December 2013 committed extraordinary acts of cruelty that amount to war crimes and in some cases potential crimes against humanity. These forces have pillaged and destroyed civilian property including homes, humanitarian infrastructure like the cars and offices of aid agencies, and medical facilities, including key hospitals. Both sides have ruthlessly targeted places of refuge, including churches, hospitals, and UN bases. This report documents abuses South Sudanese have endured since December 2013, demonstrating how targeted killings of civilians and mass pillage and destruction of civilian property lie at the heart of how parties to this conflict are fighting this war. The report is based on hundreds of interviews with victims of human rights abuses and witnesses, primarily in the towns of Juba, Bor, Bentiu, and Malakal. However, the abuses documented in this report represent only some of the horrors the people of South Sudan have witnessed since December 2013. South Sudan’s death toll in this new war is unknown but thousands of civilians have been killed, homes and markets burned, and bodies left to be eaten by birds and dogs. Towns and large rural areas in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states have emptied, with an estimated 1.5 million people fleeing their homes, afraid that they will be targeted and killed. The mass displacement, looting and destruction caused by the warring parties have 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | AUGUST 2014
contributed to the emergency-level food shortages which now face 1.1 million people, many of them displaced civilians, with the prospect of famine looming on the horizon. The political contest between two leaders, President Salva Kiir Mayardit, a Dinka, and the former Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer, and those who have supported them and ongoing abuses perpetrated against civilians because of their ethnicity, has pitched the country’s two largest ethnic groups against each other. Government rhetoric has attempted to underplay the ethnic dimension, but with little success: many communities believe that leaders, soldiers or armed civilians from the other ethnic group will continue to target and physically attack and politically undermine them. A political dispute triggered the war wracking this young nation, but the speed at which it spread and the dominating pattern of ethnically motivated reprisal violence during attacks and occupations is in large part due to South Sudan’s history of war, criminal violence and abuse without any form of accountability or meaningful inter-communal reconciliation. Serious crimes committed in violation of international law against Nuer and Dinka communities by fighters from both Nuer and Dinka-led rebel factions in Sudan’s 1983-2005 civil war, ahead of Southern independence, were never addressed. Fear of repetition and anger over those crimes created conditions for the current conflict and the abuses being perpetrated in it. Without clear and meaningful efforts to end abuses and determination to ensure justice and accountability, and over the longer term, serious efforts to promote societal healing, South Sudan is likely to continue to witness more unlawful killings, massacres, and attacks on places of refuge. South Sudan’s new war began with gun battles in the capital Juba between Nuer soldiers and other government soldiers on the night of December 15, 2013 as months of escalating tensions between Riek Machar and Salva Kiir reached boiling point. A defining event in the conflict – a gruesome massacre of Nuer men in Juba by Dinka government security forces – took place within 24 hours of this first fighting. Many thousands of armed Nuer subsequently joined the Riek-led opposition principally to revenge the massacre and other killings in capital. Well-aware of this fury, the government has failed to admit the scale of the crimes committed or demonstrate political will to provide accountability. Instead President Salva Kiir and other authorities set up a confusing array of investigations, none of which have yielded a public report, hearing or prosecutions. SOUTH SUDAN’S NEW WAR 2
Page 1 and 2: H U M A N R I G H T S W A T C H SOU
Page 3 and 4: Copyright © 2014 Human Rights Watc
Page 5 and 6: IV. Attacks on Civilians in Bentiu,
Page 10 and 11: Tens of thousands of Nuer remain sh
Page 12 and 13: In line with international law, IGA
Page 14 and 15: monitors, independent journalists a
Page 16 and 17: attack on the UN base in Akobo and
Page 18 and 19: the ICC’s jurisdiction by the gov
Page 20 and 21: • Counselling to address the emot
Page 22 and 23: interviews were conducted by teleph
Page 24 and 25: country, dictatorial tendencies and
Page 26 and 27: Riek escaped from Juba on the night
Page 28 and 29: continues in all three states. In m
Page 30 and 31: The new war in South Sudan began wi
Page 32 and 33: house was attacked as Riek had alre
Page 34 and 35: eatings and arrests of Nuer, mostly
Page 36 and 37: Attacks on Nuer Civilians Including
Page 38 and 39: Three witnesses separately reported
Page 40 and 41: immediately opened fire, injuring h
Page 42 and 43: Nuer were attacked at or immediatel
Page 44 and 45: army uniforms -that they were Nuer
Page 46 and 47: One young Nuer man described how so
Page 48 and 49: A member of parliament, Jal Thich w
Page 50 and 51: site was a concrete cellar, with st
Page 52 and 53: move because, he said, he was repea
Page 54 and 55: In late January government official
Page 56 and 57: At least four prisoners were shot i
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neighborhoods sometimes apparently
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decomposing bodies. In another hut
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and military uniforms, attacked the
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IV. Attacks on Civilians in Bentiu,
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office of the Sudd Petroleum Operat
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aftermath of the attack, around 30
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Attacks on Civilians by Government
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Human Rights Watch heard several re
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saw many bodies at the roundabout a
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V. Attacks on Civilians in Malakal,
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mobile and money. They pointed thei
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Images of a neighborhood in the sou
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Images of a neighborhood close to t
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On May 27, the UN Security Council
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Human Rights Reporting Public human
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VII. Justice and Accountability Leg
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no opposition forces or other milit
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during the crackdown. Several milit
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government and military leaders to
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journalists and freedom of expressi
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government submitted a declaration
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Since mid-December 2013, South Suda
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