YEI, South Sudan (PA) – First, the soldiers stole their goods. Then they took their food. On the third and final visit, the woman said, the soldiers raped her and her daughter-in-law until they could not walk.
What differentiates these attacks in South Sudan from many other rapes of soldiers in the troubled country is: women sued men and won.
Ten years after South Sudan gained its independence and two years after the end of its own deadly civil war, large-scale fighting has calmed down, but clashes between communities and between the government and groups that have not signed the peace agreement continue. – and the use of rape as a weapon remains rampant. Justice is extremely rare, but the September conviction raised hopes that such crimes would be pursued more and more.
“I was traumatized,” the older of the two women, a 48-year-old mother, told the Associated Press in Yei, a city in the southern state of Central Equatoria where she now lives. The PA does not usually identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they give permission, and the woman said she continues to fear for her safety and is too scared, for example, to return to her hometown. .
She said she found solace when she saw the two assailants convicted and sent to prison after she reported the rape in May to the South Sudanese army chief when he visited her village. A new army chief of staff, responding to growing frustration with such crimes, sent military judges from the capital, Juba, to oversee the case of 10 other women and girls who showed up.
Eventually, 26 soldiers were convicted, some of rape but others of crimes, including robbery. It was the first time soldiers have been convicted of rape since the 2016 outbreak at the Terrain Hotel, where five international workers were raped in a group and a local journalist was killed.
The military hopes the trial will be a warning to its troops.
“We apologize, we will not let it happen again and we will arrest the people who do it,” said Michael Machar Malual, head of civil-military relations for the army in the state of Central Equatoria. A government spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The woman hopes the verdict will encourage more survivors to speak in a country where sexual assault is a scourge..
About 65 percent of South Sudanese women and girls have experienced sexual or other violence, the United Nations Children’s Agency said in 2019.
Between July and September, the UN reported an 88% increase in conflict-related sexual violence compared to the previous quarter, although overall violence declined. He said there were more than 260 “violent incidents” in total during this period, but did not specify how many involved sexual violence.
The villages around Yei have been hit hard as fighting continues between government forces and the National Salvation Front, which has not signed the peace agreement.
Civilians say they are caught in the middle, with women often accused by soldiers of supporting the rebels – and being assaulted – especially if their husbands are not around.
In February, three women and a 14-year-old girl were raped by soldiers about 40 kilometers from Yei, according to a report by the independent body in charge of overseeing the implementation of the peace agreement. A woman was raped in the gang while being held with a gun, according to the report.
When the AP visited Yei in December, civilians and soldiers said the situation was improving and there were fewer reports of sexual violence at the trial. The lively town and nearby villages are slowly coming back to life after the war.
However, some residents said they feel as insecure as ever. A group of women who went home from the market said they were hiding their food in the bushes, worried that hungry soldiers would steal it from their homes. An economic crisis in South Sudan fueled by falling oil prices and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic means soldiers have not been paid for months – and experts warn of famine.
Rights groups have welcomed the recent case as important – but only a first step – and are pushing the government for greater responsibility.
“This should be a lesson for those in power, especially those with weapons, to know that they are not above the law,” said Riya William Yuyada, executive director of Crown the Woman South Sudan, an advocacy group that pressured the government for responsibility.
A hybrid court should be set up as part of the peace agreement to try people accused of committing atrocities during the war, but implementation is slow. Nyagoah Tut Pur, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, noted that those convicted of such crimes are often lower-level officers, and senior leaders should be held accountable. She added that the responsibility must also include compensation and services for survivors.
Some women brutalized by the soldiers took matters into their own hands.
In 2017, Mary Poni said she watched soldiers behead her father and gang-raped three of her sisters until they died before she was attacked herself. She wrote a book about her experience in the hope that it would be a small step towards reconciliation in her country.
“I want the civilian population to trust the army, and the army to be able to protect our women and girls,” Poni said. “Women live in silent fear, unable to open up about the things they have been through.”
___
Associated Press writer Maura Ajak from Juba, South Sudan, contributed to the report