(AFP) – South Sudan’s government said Sunday it was investigating United Nations allegations that its troops raped then burnt girls alive inside their homes during recent fighting in the country’s civil war. In a report released on Tuesday, rights investigators from the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said the 18-month-old war had seen “new brutality and intensity”, including gang rape, torture and gruesome murders. “We have read the report and these egregious acts could only have been carried out by egregious individuals. Our army punishes with impunity any acts that deviate from the normal conducts of war,” South Sudan’s military spokesman Philip Aguer said in a statement.
