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ARMED VIOLENCE INVOLVING COMMUNITY-BASED MILITIAS IN GREATER JONGLEI January – August 2020 MARCH 2021 Contents I. Executive summary ...................................................................................................................................... 1 II. Methodology ................................................................................................................................................ 3 III. Community-based militias in Jonglei and GPAA ....................................................................................... 3 Planning of attacks .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Coordinated, organized and tactical attacks ................................................................................................... 5 Phase 1: January to early March .................................................................................................................... 5 Phase 2: Pieri attack of 16 May 2020 ............................................................................................................ 6 Phase 3: June to August ................................................................................................................................. 6 IV. Structure and supporters of community-based militias .............................................................................. 7 Organized community-based militias .............................................................................................................. 8 Collective and structured entities ................................................................................................................ 8 Internal and community rules ..................................................................................................................... 9 Influential spiritual leaders ............................................................................................................................. 9 Supporting role of SSPDF and SPLA-IO/RM personnel ............................................................................. 10 Supporting role of political and administrative elites ................................................................................... 11 V. Human rights violations and abuses involving community-based militias ............................................. 12 Killing and injury ........................................................................................................................................... 12 Abductions and sexual violence .................................................................................................................... 13 Looting and destruction of property .............................................................................................................. 14 Displacement .................................................................................................................................................. 14 VI. Responses to armed violence ..................................................................................................................... 15 Response from national authorities .............................................................................................................. 15 Political response ....................................................................................................................................... 15 Military response ....................................................................................................................................... 16 Judicial response ....................................................................................................................................... 16 Response to the findings of this report ...................................................................................................... 17 UNMISS Response ........................................................................................................................................ 17 Political engagement ................................................................................................................................. 17 Deployment of UN peacekeepers ............................................................................................................... 18 Human rights engagement for the release of abductees .......................................................................... 19 VII. Conclusion and recommendations ............................................................................................................ 19 Annex 1: Maps .................................................................................................................................................. 22 Annex 2: Legal background ............................................................................................................................. 25 Annex 3: Government response to the findings of the report ....................................................................... 26 Map of Jonglei and Greater Pibor Administrative Area, South Sudan I. Executive summary 1. This joint report of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documents armed violence involving community-based militias from the Dinka, Nuer and Murle communities in Jonglei state and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) between January and August 2020. 2. During this eight-month period, violence involving these groups led to the killing and wounding of at least 1,058 people from the Murle, Nuer and Dinka communities. At least 686 women and children, mainly from the Murle community, were abducted and 39 Murle women were raped or gang raped. It is likely that abducted women and girls have also been subjected to forced marriage and sexual enslavement. At least 86,000 cattle (worth at least USD 30 million)1 were stolen during these attacks. Looting and destruction of private and public property, including humanitarian facilities, was also documented in many of these incidents. 3. Violence involving community-based militias, especially in Jonglei and GPAA, has increased and is responsible for the vast majority of casualties among local communities since the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) in September 2018.2 During the same period, human rights violations and abuses committed by Government forces and opposition armed groups decreased in most parts of the country. 4. HRD’s investigation gathered evidence of the widespread use of small arms and light weapons as well as military-style tactics, illustrating the complex nature and increasing intensity of this violence, as well as the evolving features of community-based militias. These groups were found to be collective entities with a degree of organization and established command structures. 5. Based on available information, HRD determined that at least 50 individuals from the Dinka, Nuer and Murle communities may have directly or indirectly supported these militias in carrying out the attacks documented in this report. These individuals belong to three broad categories: (1) traditional chiefs and spiritual leaders, (2) Government and opposition forces, and (3) members of the political and administrative elite. Their involvement has exposed the porous boundaries between the military apparatus and the community loyalties of its personnel, as well as the challenge of establishing a fully integrated army in the ethnically polarized context of South Sudan. 6. Some rank-and-file personnel and officers of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and the pro-Machar Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO/RM) have supported or actively participated in the clashes alongside community-based militias, in their individual capacity and according to their community kinship. Others have provided material support as part of a calculated move to reinforce political alliances or widen divisions in the midst of a slow and fragile implementation of the R-ARCSS, including the power vacuum created by delays in the establishment of state and local governments. Armed violence in Jonglei and GPAA is therefore inextricably linked with identity and national politics. 7. In its response to the findings of this report, the Government of South Sudan stated that it condemns the alleged crimes committed in Greater Jonglei “in the strongest possible terms and wishes to see anyone involved brought to justice.” However, it refuted the participation of SSPDF personnel in these attacks, and the support of political and administrative elites to community-based militias. It also 1 86,000 cattle on the basis of USD 350 per head of cattle. 2 Since the signing of R-ARCSS in September 2018, at least 74 per cent of casualties among local populations have been attributed to community-based militias. 1 highlighted some actions already taken by the authorities to address this violence, including the establishment of local governance structures at state and county levels. 8. In this context, UNMISS and OHCHR make the following recommendations: To the Government of South Sudan: • Conduct a prompt, effective, independent and impartial investigation into all allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights law in Jonglei and GPAA;

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