YEI, South Sudan (AP) – First, soldiers stole their belongings. So they took their food. On their third and last visit, the woman said, soldiers raped her and her daughter-in-law until they were unable to walk.
What sets these attacks in South Sudan apart from many other rapes perpetrated by soldiers in the troubled country is this: women took men to court and won.
Ten years after South Sudan gained independence and two years after its own deadly civil war ended, large-scale fighting has subsided, but clashes continue between communities and between the government and groups that have not signed the peace agreement. – and the use of rape as a weapon remains rampant. Justice is extremely rare, but the September conviction has raised hopes that such crimes will be increasingly prosecuted.
“I was traumatized,” the oldest of the two women, 48, a mother of eight, told The Associated Press in Yei, a city in the state of Central Equatoria, where she now lives. The PA does not normally identify people who claim to have been sexually abused unless they are given permission, and the woman said she continues to fear for her safety and is very afraid, for example, of returning to her home village, Adio.
She said she found solace in seeing her two attackers convicted and sent to prison after she reported the rape in May to the head of the South Sudanese army when he visited her village. A new army chief of staff, responding to growing frustration with these crimes, sent military judges from the capital, Juba, to oversee the case and those of 10 other women and girls who also came forward.
In the end, 26 soldiers were convicted, some for rape, but others for crimes, including looting. It was the first time that soldiers have been convicted of rape since the 2016 riot at the Terrain Hotel, where five international aid workers were raped by a gang and a local journalist was killed.
The army expects the trial to be a warning to its troops.
“We apologize, we will not let it happen again and we will arrest people who do,” said Michael Machar Malual, the army’s head of civil-military relations 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 openly in a country where sexual assault is a scourge.
About 65% of women and girls in South Sudan experienced sexual or other physical violence, the United Nations agency for children said in 2019.
Between July and September, the UN reported an 88% increase in conflict-related sexual violence compared to the previous quarter, despite the general decline in violence. The report said that there were more than 260 “violent incidents” in total during the period, but did not specify how many involved sexual violence.
The villages around Yei have been hard hit 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 beaten – especially if their husbands are not around.
In February, three women and a 14-year-old girl were raped by soldiers about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Yei, according to a report by the independent body charged with overseeing the implementation of the peace agreement. A woman was raped by a gang while at gunpoint, the report said.
When the PA visited Yei in December, civilians and soldiers said the situation was improving and that there were fewer reports of sexual violence since the trial. The once bustling city and nearby villages are slowly coming back to life after the war.
Even so, some residents said they feel as insecure as ever. A group of women returning home from the market said they were hiding their food in the bushes, fearing that hungry soldiers would steal it from their homes. An economic crisis in South Sudan fueled by a drop in oil prices and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic means that soldiers have not been paid for months – and experts warn of famine.
Human rights groups hailed the recent case as important – but only a first step – and are pressing the government for more responsibility.
“This should be a lesson for those with 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 to provide of bills.
A hybrid court must be established 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-ranking 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 soldiers solved the problem with their own hands.
In 2017, Mary Poni said she saw soldiers beheading her father and raping three of her sisters to death, before she was beaten herself. She wrote a book about her experience in the hope that it will 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,” said Poni. “Women live in silent fear, unable to open up about the things they have been through.”
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Associated Press writer Maura Ajak in Juba, South Sudan contributed to this report