






South Sudan: The Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) – Breaking the Silence – The Way Forward (19.02.2021)















Commission member Barney Afako explained that signing the cessation of hostilities ceasefire had left “a vacuum” at the community level.
NEW YORK, United States of America, February 19, 2021 – Extreme violence and attacks involving thousands of fighters at a time have engulfed more than three-quarters of South Sudan, UN human Rights Council-appointed investigators said on Friday, warning that the bloodshed faced by civilians are “the worst recorded” since the country’s civil war began in December 2013.
Highlighting a continuing lack of local and national infrastructure almost a year since the formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity in South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka, Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights in the country noted that although the signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement two years ago had “led to a reduction in hostilities at the national level”, the country seen “a massive escalation in violence” locally.
Power vacuum filled by fighting
Echoing that finding, Commission member Barney Afako explained that signing the cessation of hostilities ceasefire had left “a vacuum” at the community level.
“There are no governors in place or no county commissioners in place. So, there is nobody to deal with those cleavages which had remained. Instead what we saw, was that the weaponry that have been left in the community as well as that which is now supplied by others fuelled this communal violence”, he said.
Other worrying developments include restrictions and self-censorship among journalists and pressure groups.
New level of fear
“The level of State suppression and inability of civil society or journalists to operate is now completely different”, said Commission member Andrew Clapham. “There is sort of levels of fear and the State suppression and the fact that you can be picked up and tortured and killed is rather different”.
In its latest report, the Commission describes “waves of attacks and reprisals” that have left hundreds of South Sudanese women, men and children dead, maimed or destitute in Jonglei State and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area.
Ms. Sooka told journalists via video conference that the armed groups and militias had mobilized along ethnic lines, often with the support of armed State and opposition forces.
She highlighted clashes last year between allied Dinka and Nuer militias and Murle pastoralist militias with massive violations against civilians, including killing and displacement.
“We have documented the new levels of militia violence engulfing more than three-quarters of the country at a localized level in which children carry weapons and women are traded as spoils of war like chattels”, Ms. Sooka said.
‘Children all have guns’
The Commission Chairperson said that civilians described combatants using weapons that they had never seen before.
“One man told the Commission, ‘I went to Pibor town and I saw guns being sold there. There the black guns used by the NSS were being sold for 25,000 South Sudanese shillings, each less than a few hundred dollars.’ He also said that children all have guns”, she recounted.
Ms. Sooka also described as “shocking” the high number of fighters involved in localized conflicts and highlighted that women were traded as “spoils of war”.
Moreover, children carry weapons and the levels of violence “have already surpassed” those documented in December 2013, when civil war erupted.
Forced to fight, identities erased
Describing attacks in Jonglei and the Greater Pibor area, she pointed to “systemically and deliberately torched” homes, murders, forced displacements, abductions, rapes, sexual enslavement and, in some instances, forced marriages to captors. Abducted boys have been forced to fight and, sometimes “forcibly assimilated into rival armed groups”.
These victims have had their ethnic and other identities “completely erased”, according to the Commission’s report, which noted that as of December 2020, hundreds of abductees were still missing, with hundreds of thousands displaced by the violence and recurrent flooding.
The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan is due to present its report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 10 March.









Juba/Geneva (1 February 2021) – The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan welcomed today the decision by the South Sudanese Government on Friday, 29 January 2021 to proceed with the processes of establishing the Hybrid Court, and other transitional justice mechanisms to address violations committed during the conflict.
In fulfilment of outstanding obligations under the 2018 Agreement for the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, the Cabinet formally requested the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to take the necessary steps for establishing (i) the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing to investigate and document patterns of human rights violations and causes of the conflict in South Sudan; (ii) the Hybrid Court for South Sudan to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for violations of human rights and humanitarian law, and atrocity crimes; and (iii) the Compensation and Reparation Authority that will administer a fund to provide reparation and assistance to affected victims.
“After more than two years of delay the Government has at last taken the first steps to initiate key transitional justice measures to address the legacy of gross human rights violations in South Sudan,” stated Commission Chair Yasmin Sooka. “If the Government of South Sudan is to retain any credibility whatsoever, the political rhetoric must translate into tangible, and genuine results,” she cautioned. “Most critically, the Government must complete all the processes of reconstituting the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, which is to enact the domestic legislation for establishing the three transitional justice mechanisms under the 2018 Agreement. The Commission has provided benchmarks to the Government on the speedy implementation of the commitments under Chapter V.”
A failure to adhere to the timelines of the 2018 Agreement, a particularly protracted political stalemate, delayed the formation of the new Government and the completion of key appointments, putting the establishment of the transitional justice mechanisms on hold.
“These delays have meant that the underlying causes and drivers of the conflict, including competition for resources, territorial control, and political influence, have continued to fuel localized conflicts, rampant corruption, and economic crimes in South Sudan,” stated Commissioner Andrew Clapham. Meanwhile, those responsible for war crimes and continuing human rights violations have been emboldened by a system that permits impunity for torture, enforced disappearances, and atrocity crimes,” he added.
The absence of accountability and reparation, including for sexual violence, undermines the fabric of society, breeds resentment, and defers the prospects of reconciliation and healing, while victims also continue to bear multiple burdens of physical, psychological, and socio-economic consequences of the violations, the Commission noted. The delay in establishing these institutions has robbed the people of South Sudan of the opportunity to achieve sustainable peace.
“Given the approval of the Cabinet, the Government should now take immediate steps to sign the memorandum of understanding with the African Union and adopt the draft Statute to establish the Hybrid Court,” said Commissioner Barney Afako. “It should also initiate broad-based and inclusive national consultations so that South Sudanese can contribute towards the formation of the other transitional justice processes, especially the truth commission,” he added.
The Commission further stressed that the hopes and expectations of the South Sudanese people will be raised again by the Government’s announcement, and that the Government must deliver on its obligations, including by prioritizing the provision of urgent and comprehensive reparation measures to address the harms and losses suffered by victims and communities.
“We also welcome the statement of the Chair of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki expressing his support to the Government of South Sudan and the people of South Sudan in their quest for peace and security in South Sudan”.
ENDS
The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan was established by the Human Rights Council in March 2016 and extended in March 2017, and for further years in March 2018, March 2019, and June 2020, with a mandate to determine and report the facts and circumstances of, collect and preserve evidence of, and clarify responsibility for alleged gross violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes, including sexual and gender-based violence and ethnic violence, with a view to ending impunity and providing accountability.

The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring & Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) is sending worrying signals of the state of affairs in South Sudan. Yes, there is peace and there are slow progress. Still, the limbo and indefinite transition period is worrying. There is implications to the slow-down process and progress from the government.
RJEMC is only dropping these assessments to show how the state is slow in authorizing changes and securing measures of new national and temporary bodies. These are put in place to ensure all stakeholders are involved and have their place n accordance with the R-ARCSS. That is clearly a hectic stance and work for the government, but the ones leading and in-charge knew this. They accepted the agreement and know the stipulations in the deal. Therefore, they should continue to implement and follow the articles, which they have signed under.
Just read these two passages from the RJEMC Report!
“The slow pace of implementation of the R-ARCSS is accompanied by a number of attendant risks and challenges. These include growing defections and intercommunal violence, which could destabilise the permanent ceasefire; insufficient resources devoted to the training and redeployment of the NUF, with the potential to derail unification; failure to complete the RTGoNU at all levels of government; and a prolonged delay in establishing the TNLA and Council of States, which could result in the inability to pass meaningful legislation critical to the success of the Agreement” (RJEMC ON THE STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REVITALISED AGREEMENT ON THE RESOLUTION OF THE CONFLICT IN THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN – 1st October to 31st December 2020, Published: 26.01.2021).
“With almost a year having being expended during the Transitional Period, the RTGoNU is still struggling with completion of outstanding Pre-Transitional tasks and in particular that of graduation and redeployment of the NUF, and reconstitution of the TNLA and the COS. What was originally intended to be a forty-five-day training exercise turned into a more than 14-month ordeal to date for the unification of forces. Of growing concern is the chronic shortage of food and medicines and the increasing number of forces leaving the camps in search of food” (RJEMC ON THE STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REVITALISED AGREEMENT ON THE RESOLUTION OF THE CONFLICT IN THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN – 1st October to 31st December 2020, Published: 26.01.2021).
We should worry about these risks, as the way the stakeholders are playing with this. It is soft measures and not making decisions. Neither holding direct talks and opening the transitional bodies. There are still not a TNLA and other bodies, which is needed for the state to continue to build a state. If the government wants the state to be procedural and a rule of law intended state. They need a legislative body and a permanent constitution, which haven’t been in place. They continuing the stalemate and that should worry.
The TGoNU haven’t acted righteous in this. The President and his cabinet should have enacted and secured the bodies to be established. Just so they could move-on from this temporary stalemate and uncertainty, as the President is so easily making decrees in favours of himself. That is why he should really start to build the state. It will cost him power, but will also make him remembered for something good. It is harder to build a state, then wage war. That is just follow human history and we all know that.
If the President and his party wants to be remembered for peace. They better start implementing the R-ARCSS in a greater speed. They are clearly causing new issues and challenges as time prolongs it. The TGoNU needs to listen to this… and they should steer the wheels ahead. It did act upon vital parts in December 2020 and it got to continue.
Yes, a prolonged transition is better than war. Everything is better than war. Let’s just have that straight. Still, the President and everyone around him needs to act like this R-ARCSS is important and actually want to make it happen. Not just prolong it and extended the temporary state. That will not create a state and government worth governing. The President knows this and they needs to create procedures and state organs that actually work. That isn’t easy, but that is the task he has in his hands. If he succeeds … then he has made it better for the next generation and he shouldn’t let that opportunity go. Peace.