| | | Date: Dec 6, 2018 | | Source: The Daily Star |  |  |  |
| | More than 150 women, girls raped in South Sudan: U.N. | Agence France Presse
UNITED NATIONS: More than 150 women and girls have come forward in the past 12 days to seek help in South Sudan after they were raped or suffered other forms of sexual violence, the heads of three U.N. agencies said Monday. Armed men, many in uniform, carried out the attacks near the northern city of Bentiu, according to a joint statement from Henrietta Fore, who heads the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock and the director of the U.N. Population Fund, Natalia Kanem. The three agencies condemned “these abhorrent attacks” and called on authorities in South Sudan to ensure the perpetrators face justice.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) last week said 125 women and girls had been raped while walking to emergency food distribution centers set up by international aid agencies.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the attacks.
“These horrific acts are a distressing reminder of how, despite recent recommitments by South Sudan’s leaders to a cessation of hostilities and a revitalized peace agreement, the security situation for civilians remains dire, especially for women and children,” he said in a statement.
As well as being raped, MSF said many of the victims were “whipped, beaten or clubbed with sticks and rifle butts” and robbed of their clothes, shoes, money and the ration cards entitling them to food aid. |
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