Troops face trial for attack on aid workers

A SOUTH Sudan military court opened a trial yesterday of 13 soldiers accused of raping foreign aid workers and murdering a local journalist during fighting in Juba in July last year.

The chilling attack cast a spotlight on atrocities by government troops, and also led to a damning investigation into the failure of United Nations peacekeepers to protect civilians, which led to the sacking of the force’s Kenyan commander.

The soldiers appeared in a variety of uniforms of their units – including four from the Tiger Division, which guards the president.

There are no commanders among them.

“There is a crime of murder, a crime of raping, a crime of looting and a crime of damaging property,” military prosecutor Abubakr Mohamed Ramadan said.

“A lot of investigations have been done.”

Civil war broke out in South Sudan in 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup.

An August 2015 peace deal collapsed in July when fierce fighting erupted

in Juba between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar.

A Human Rights Watch report said there were targeted ethnic killings, rapes and gang rapes, beatings and looting during the clashes.

The report said that on July 11 government forces attacked the Terrain compound of 50 employees of foreign organisations.

Survivors told how the soldiers killed a prominent journalist, raped or gang raped international and national staff of organisations, and destroyed and looted property.

The attack began after the previous days of fighting had ended, with up to 100 soldiers swarming the compound and making off with vehicles and personal belongings.

Some aid workers were found, beaten and raped. Women were threatened at gunpoint.

Aid workers made multiple appeals for help, which went unanswered.

The report said a lack of leadership in the UN mission culminated in an ineffective response. – AFP

A crime of murder, raping, looting and damaging property