Report suggests war crimes, cannibalism and other atrocities in South Sudan

Forced cannibalism, mutilation of bodies, conscription of child soldiers and other human rights abuses have marked the war in South Sudan and may amount to violations of international law, an African Union (AU) report said on Wednesday. Fighting broke out in the world’s youngest nation in December 2013, less than three years after it won independence from Sudan, between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir (Dinka people) against those allied with his former deputy Riek Machar (Nuer people). Since then, tens of thousands of people have died and over 2 million more are displaced by warfare in South Sudan. According to the United Nations, the violence and subsequent threat of famine is a result of the country’s feuding leaders.

Evidence that some of the people who had been gathered were compelled to eat human flesh, while others were forced to drink human blood belonging to a victim who had been slaughtered and his blood collected on a plate.

AU report

The report alleged that government troops carried out organized killings of ethnic Nuer in the capital of Juba, where mass graves were discovered. Amid the Juba killings, Machar fled the capital and mobilized an insurgency which committed revenge attacks against the Dinka, sparking a cycle of violence, which occurred so quickly they probably were were also coordinated, it added. The report recommended the creation of an “African legal mechanism” to bring accused persons to justice, and the creation of a South Sudan reparations fund, among other steps. Although Kiir and Machar signed a peace agreement in August, the fighting still continues.

Acknowledge that some individuals have taken the law into their own hands …We will not allow impunity.

South Sudan presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny

Africa South Sudan