South Sudan to try combatants over abuses

By Parach Mach

JUBA, South Sudan

South Sudanese soldiers could face prosecution for crimes including murder, rapes, and looting among other misconducts committed during last week's clashes between rivals forces, the Army's spokesman has said.

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) general command has announced the establishment of a military court martial that shall try soldiers accused of committing crimes against civilians, Brigadier Gen. Lul Ruai Koang told Anadolu Agency via phone in capital, Juba.

Despite the August 2015 peace deal and formation of unity government last April, South Sudan's capital has seen a week-long fighting that has killed hundreds and displaced thousands. Many Juba residents have reported thefts and armed robberies by men in uniform after the end of clashes with opposition soldiers.

An advocacy group, End Impunity, earlier this week accused the South Sudan army (SPLA) of abuses and said that 27 women were allegedly raped by combatants outside a United Nations camp in Juba.

Lul said the trials of the soldiers had begun Thursday and those who will be found guilty will be punished according to military rules.

South Sudan has been consumed by violence since December 2013, when president Salva Kiir accused his sacked deputy Riek Machar of plotting coup, the conflict tore the young nation across ethnic lines pitting support of Kiir, an ethnic Dinka against those loyal to Machar, an ethnic Nuers.

Two years of civil war are estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 2.4 million from their homes and place another 4 million at the risk of famine.