Audio: SPLA refutes UN Report on Human Rights Violations

Militias allied to the government have been allowed to rape women as a form of payment while fighting rebels, according to a United Nations report released today Friday.

According to the UN report, militias operated under a "do what you can and take what you can" agreement that allowed them to rape and abduct women and girls as a form of payment.

They also raided cattle and stole personal property, it added.

"The report contains harrowing accounts of civilians suspected of supporting the opposition, including children and the disabled, killed by being burned alive, suffocated in containers, shot, hanged from trees or cut to pieces," said UN human rights office.

The investigation accused all sides in the civil war of targeting civilians for murder and rape but said the army and government-allied forces were most to blame for what it described as "one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world".

However, in an interview with Radio Bakhita this afternoon, SPLA Spokesperson Colonel Marko Mayol denied the findings of the report.

Radio Bakhita could not get comments from the SPLA-IO leadership on the report.

#Radiobakhita #Southsudan Photo: Photograph: Albert Gonzalez Farran/AFP/Getty Images via theguardian.com