Surge in sexual violence reported

Over the past two weeks, at least 125 females have been raped while seeking emergency food in Bentiu, South Sudan, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has confirmed. ‘Women and young girls have been coming to the MSF clinic in Bentiu en masse after surviving horrific episodes of sexual violence,’ said Ruth Okello, an MSF midwife in South Sudan. Sher said some were under the age of 10 and ‘even pregnant women have not been spared from these brutal attacks’. A report on the News24 site notes that the attacks, by unknown men in the northern city of Bentiu, occurred as hungry women and girls tried to reach emergency food distributions set up by international aid agencies. South Sudan's latest civil war began five years ago and has been characterised by mass rape and attacks on civilians, often along ethnic lines.

Full Fin24 report