South Sudan: 3 combat soldiers arrested on rape charges

By Parach Mach

JUBA, South Sudan (AA) - South Sudan's army said Friday it arrested three soldiers for raping women on the outskirts of the capital, Juba in February this year.

The soldiers were arrested when "four victims successfully identified them" for the acts committed when a platoon they belonged to was deployed to protect the Juba-Nimule road from bandit attacks at Kubi, about 45 kilometers from the capital, army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang told a press conference in Juba.

A fourth soldier was also arrested over the escape of a rape suspect from a military detention center, he said, adding "If they are found guilty, they will be held accountable for their actions".

The army does not take responsibility for illegal actions of individual soldiers and has "scaled up an awareness campaign among our forces that it's wrong to rape, it’s wrong to kill civilians, it’s wrong to commit crimes," Koang said.

The United Nations had, in a report released last July, documented more than 120 cases of sexual violence in the country, including rapes and gang rapes of women and minors that allegedly occurred during renewed clashes that killed more than 200 people, and left thousands more displaced.

The report indicated that children and the disabled in the country had been burned alive and pro-government militia allowed to rape women as a form of payment.