GENEVA – South Sudan’s government operated a “scorched earth policy” of deliberate rape, pillage and killing of civilians during the civil war in 2015, a report published on Friday by the U.N. human rights office said.
“The report contains harrowing accounts of civilians suspected of supporting the opposition, including children and the disabled, killed by being burned alive, suffocated in containers, shot, hanged from trees or cut to pieces,” the U.N. human rights office said in a statement.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
The prevalence of rape “suggests its use in the conflict has become an acceptable practice by (government) SPLA soldiers and affiliated armed militias,” the report said.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Angus MacSwan)(Reuters)