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South Sudan: UN to investigate 142 persons for violations of human rights

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The United Nations (UN) human rights body has come up with a list of 142 persons to be probed over grave human rights abuses amounting to war crimes, in South Sudan.

The 142 individuals are being accused of grievous crimes such as massacres, torture, abductions, detentions, looting, burning of villages, forced displacement, rape and sexual violence, the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said.

The UN Commission on human rights in South Sudan came up with a latest report last Friday, saying it had “reasonable grounds to believe that members of the Government of South Sudan have engaged in acts … amounting to war crimes” in the southwestern districts of Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria.

“It [the commission] has drawn up a list of 142 individuals who warrant investigation for a range of crimes under national and international law,” Chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in a statement.

The report described terrible rights abuses such as mass rapes, sexual slavery of women, deliberate killing of dozens of children, including at least one infant who was beaten to death by soldiers in front of the mother.

“The notion that the localised violence is not linked to the State or to national-level conflicts, as suggested by the Government and South Sudanese military elites, is a fallacy,” Sooka said.

“These localised killings, massacres, torture, abductions, detentions, looting, burning of villages, and forced displacement, as well as the rape, and sexual violence, are a reflection of the intense political contestation for power … at a national level.”

“Nearly all 14 of the UN’s risk factors for atrocity crimes are now present in South Sudan,” Sooka added.

Hundreds of civilians were killed in cold-blooded conflict between rival armed groups in Sudan’s southwest between June and September, 2021, according to the UN.

South Sudan, the youngest country in the world, who got independence in 2011, has been a victim of severe instability. The UN had warned last month that the country risks sliding into war as violence amongst ethnic groups and political infighting threatens an already weak peace process.

There has been no official response by the government of South Sudan to the  development.

Metro

South Africa slams 54 fraud, immigration charges on Rwandan genocide suspect

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One of the most wanted Rwandan Genocide suspects, Fulgence Kayishema has been slammed with a 54-count charge by South African prosecutors, including fraud and immigration charges.

Kayishema, an ex-Rwandan police officer who is wanted internationally over his alleged role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, was arraigned at a Cape Town court on Friday.

After being on the run for over two decades, Kayishema was arrested on May 24 on a grape farm in South Africa where he had been hiding under a false name, according to a prosecutor, who said refugees working in the farm gave him up.

Spokesperson of the South African prosecutors, Eric Ntabazalila, who addressed a press conference outside the court, said the fugitive now faced 54 separate charges relating to fraud and immigration offences, up from five previously preferred against him.

Kayishema had been a fugitive from justice since 2001, when the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) indicted him for genocide for allegedly ordering the massacre of 2,000 people hiding in the Nyange Catholic Church,” Ntabazalila told journalists.

Some of the charges could see Kayishema imprisoned for up to 15 years, said Ntabazalila.

South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) also allege that Kayishema used a false identity to apply for asylum and refugee status in South Africa.

The case was adjourned to June 20 to allow Kayishema’s defence team to consult, at which point he could apply for bail, while he is also expected to face extradition to Rwanda to be tried over the ICTR genocide indictment.

With Kayishema’s arrest, there are only three indicted fugitives still on the run after a sweeping indictment by the international tribunal.

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US, WFP, USAID suspend food aid to Ethiopia

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The United States along with the World Food Program (WFP) and the USAID have suspended food aid to Ethiopia following allegations of theft and diversion by government officials.

The WFP and the USAID announced the suspension on Friday, a day after the US government announced that it was suspending the programme due to the same reasons.

WFP Executive Director, Cindy McCain, who made the announcement early on Friday, said the suspension was temporary, until a full investigation was conducted by the Ethiopian government.

“We will temporarily cease food aid in Ethiopia, but nutritional assistance to children, pregnant and lactating women, school meals programs and activities to strengthen farmers and herders in the face of external shocks will continue without interruption,” McCain said in a press release.

Diversion of food is absolutely unacceptable. The Ethiopian government’s commitment to investigate and hold those responsible accountable is welcomed.

“WFP is working closely with its UN partners, humanitarian organizations and local actors to reform the way aid is distributed across Ethiopia,” she added.

On Thursday, the US government’s international aid agency, USAID, had announced the suspension of its food aid to Ethiopia, while denouncing a “widespread and coordinated operation to divert.”

“USAID intends to immediately resume food aid as soon as we have confidence in the integrity of the distribution systems to get aid to its intended recipients,” the agency had said.

In a joint statement with the USAID, Ethiopian authorities assured that a joint investigation was underway “so that the perpetrators of these hijackings are accountable.”

According to the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA), more than 20 million people of the 120 million Ethiopian population, about 16%, depend on food aid due to conflicts or recurring drought in the region which has also displaced 4.6 million people in the country.

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