The trail of destruction left in the troubled South Sudan has been perpetrated in unspeakable volumes. It is said that more than 40 officials in South Sudan may have individually committed atrocious crimes against humanity.
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan revealed the damning, glaring details of the horrors in South Sudan, saying that 40 officials may be individually responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Civilians have been tortured, mutilated, and villages have been destroyed on an industrial scale. The officials - including military generals and state governors - may be responsible for the rape and murder of civilians and recruitment of child soldiers.
South Sudan is a case of morals that have been ravaged by the devastating effects of civil war. The country betrays a warped sense of humanity in its entirety. The UN has actually said these horrendous acts are reminiscent of Bosnia. That alone highlights the extent of the damage that South Sudan has suffered. Words like stability and peace are literally a remote possibility for the civilians of the country.
"Children have been recruited by all sides in the conflict and forced to kill civilians; in many cases they have watched loved ones raped or killed," the report said. "The scale of the hunger and destruction inflicted on the country by its political and military leaders defies description."
It is the civil war which broke out two years after the country had gained independence from Sudan that has caused the detestable and untold suffering the country has painfully gone through. In 2015, a peace deal was signed but it broke down and fighting has since continued.
The report - based on interviews with hundreds of witnesses, satellite imagery and nearly 60,000 documents - will be used as evidence in future war crimes trials, due to take place under the terms of the 2015 peace deal. One woman said her 12-year-old son was forced to have sex with his grandmother, in order to stay alive. The same woman also saw her husband being castrated. Another man saw his companion, a man, gang raped and left for dead in the bushes.
"Sexual violence against men in South Sudan is far more extensive than documented", says the head of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, Yasmin Sook. Hope for future prosecutions still remains alive.