UN report says South Sudan has healed little since civil war

South Sudan has me concrete steps toward national healing more than two years after end of a civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and sent more than 2 million people fleeing, a new United Nations report says.

w some government forces are fueling new fighting by arming community militias with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenes and machine guns to attack neighboring communities, says report by Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, presented this week to U.N. Human Rights Council.

It's a bleak look at what authors call “ government’s manifest lack of political will to end impunity for serious crimes.”

“staggering scale” of sexual violence, as well as corruption and use of starvation as a weapon of conflict, remain dangers in a country ranked as one of worst in world to live. More than half population is hungry, and COVID-19 is spreing through a nation whose health system was largely shattered.

Inste of peacebuilding and accountability, “political violence is spiraling out of control at inter-communal level but driven by national actors who arm ethnic militias and paramilitary groups with military-gre weapons using ostensible cover of cattle-raiding, which in turn les to reprisals and revenge killings – all under cover and control of parties to conflict in South Sudan,” report says.

Government spokesman Michael Makuei rejected report, asking, “Why should we mobilize militia against certain mentalities at time when we have alrey signed a peace deal and we are all working for it?” He asserted of authors: “All se are reports written by people who are seated comfortably in Juba hotels. y write such reports to guarantee ir continuity" in ir posts.

In February, country's rival leers formed a coalition government that many observers prayed would last this time around. But furr steps toward peace have fallen behind, and country remains awash in weapons despite a U.N. arms embargo that was extended in May for ar year.

new report calls for government to allocate at least 1% of country’s oil revenues to reparations to citizens harmed during five-year civil war. It also urges government to establish a Commission on Truth, Reconciliation and Healing as well as a long-delayed hybrid court to dress crimes including gecide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

report also seeks faster implementation of peace deal that moves country from a transitional government into elections and merges once-warring forces.

South Sudan, world’s youngest country, has seen very little peace. It won its independence from Sudan in 2011 after years of fighting and erupted in conflict two years later as supporters of President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar began fighting.

Machar is again Kiir's vice president under new government.

Despite formal end of war, vicious fighting continues in parts of country including Jonglei state, where hundreds of people have been killed this year. survivors w face flooding that has displaced more than a half-million people, furr imperiling food security as prices rise amid COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on travel.

In September, U.N. secretary-general warned that South Sudan is one of four countries that face risk of famine. In Jonglei, he said, attacks on agricultural and pastoral land and looting of livestock and food has left more than 1.4 million people facing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity. At least 350,000 children have severe or moderate acute malnutrition.

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