JUBA, South Sudan (AP) – South Sudan’s army has burned people alive, raped and shot girls, and forced tens of thousands from their homes, according to interviews with survivors by The Associated Press and corroborated by human rights groups.
The scorched earth campaign is apparently aimed at driving civilians out of the rebel-controlled parts of an oil-rich state, according to Human Rights Watch. South Sudan’s military is trying to depopulate the rural areas of Unity state through violence and hunger, said the group. The tactics, which include the alleged burning of grain stocks and the looting of life-sustaining property like cattle, are believed to be part of efforts to drain the rebels of their support base.
“They are trying to destroy our lives,” said survivor Angelina Nyaboth Chap Tang, who fled to a U.N. base in the state capital of Bentiu. “I lost my son. I lost my grain. I lost my cattle. Everything has been destroyed.”
Tang said armed men killed her son in an attack two weeks ago in which her village was torched, grain stocks destroyed and cattle looted.
Another survivor, Theresa Nyakama, said she lived off wild plants for a month before seeking shelter with the U.N. in Bentiu, where some 28,000 civilians have fled since the start of the offensive in May.