from RAJI BASHIR in Khartoum, Sudan
Sudan Bureau
KHARTOUM, (CAJ News) – TWO children are among 76 people executed by firing squad in South Sudan over the past 18 months.
The figures by the United Nations Human Rights Office cover the period between January 2023 and June 2024.
Among these, 39 people, including a child, were executed that way in the first six months of 2024, nearly double the number of victims in the same period last year.
The UN Human Rights Office has expressed concern about extrajudicial executions in South Sudan, where people face army and security forces’ firing squads for a range of alleged offences, such as murder, rape, cattle-raiding, domestic disputes and inter-communal violence.
Thameen Al-Kheetan, UN Human Rights spokesperson, denounced the extrajudicial executions as constituting a grave violation of the right to life and to due process, including a fair trial.
“They must stop immediately, and the government should conduct prompt and impartial investigations, and hold perpetrators accountable,” the envoy said.
Al-Kheetan said in addition to extrajudicial executions, the organisation remained concerned about continued application of the death penalty.
“It is vital that the South Sudanese authorities impose a moratorium on executions, with a view to abolishing the death penalty,” Al-Kheetan said.
South Sudan, the world’s newest country, after attaining independence in 2011, is synonymous with conflict since autonomy.
It spilled into civil war in 2013, and while political leaders have formed a unity government, violence is intermittent.
– CAJ News