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Rights group Amnesty International has accused South Sudanese government forces of “deliberately killings civilians, raping women and girls, and looting property” in Juba in July.
In a report launched on Monday, Amnesty International maintained that guns were turned on civilians.
“South Sudanese government troops killed men from the Nuer ethnic group, raped women and girls, and carried out a massive campaign of pillage,” said Joanne Mariner, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Advisor.
“These attacks by government forces are further proof of the urgent need to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan, with the aim of stopping the flow of weapons, and establish an effective mechanism to monitor compliance. States should not be profiting off weapons that are being used to kill civilians.”
The rights group also accused the United Nations (UN) for failing to adequately respond to the atrocities in the east African country.
At least 300 people were killed, while 42 000 others fled the city of Juba in Julyfollowing four days of intense gun battles.
The violence echoed the fighting that triggered the civil war and marked a fresh blow to last year’s peace to end the bitter conflict that began when President Salva Kiir accused ex-rebel and now Vice President Riek Machar of plotting a coup in 2013.
Amnesty International’s report was released ahead of a field mission to South Sudan by the African Union’s Council (AUPSC), scheduled to take place between 28 and 30 October.
The group called on the AUPSC to look into the July violence during its visit, and to take steps “to ensure the establishment of an independent hybrid court able to investigate and prosecute these and other crimes”.
