(UN News Centre) – The South Sudanese armed forces may have committed widespread human rights abuses, including the alleged raping and immolation of women and girls, during the recent upsurge in fighting across the African State, according to a new report released by the United Nations mission in the country (UNMISS). The report – released today by UNMISS – suggests that the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and associated armed groups carried out a campaign of violence against the population of South Sudan’s Unity state, reportedly killing civilians, looting and destroying villages and displacing over 100,000 people. According to the testimony of 115 victims and eyewitnesses from the Unity state counties of Rubkona, Guit, Koch, Leer and Mayom, SPLA fighters also abducted and sexually abused numerous women and girls, some of whom were reportedly burnt alive in their dwellings.
