Leadership has failed to establish law and order in the new country, instead allowing a pervading sense of immunity among national security forces, unchecked human rights violations and arbitrary assaults and arrests against a civilian population dependent on their protection. While instability in South Sudan results primarily from political conflict, South Sudan’s political bases often overlap with ethnic bases and the government’s engagement in widespread regional and ethnic nepotism exacerbates these tensions. Government leaders of the SPLM party– former rebel commanders during the Sudanese civil war – rely on destructive military solutions to political problems, fostering an atmosphere of armed rebellion and inter-ethnic violence. Hope and optimism inspired by independence in 2011 has quickly disappeared amidst widespread government failure and escalating demonstrations of underlying tensions in the country. In 2014, a woman watched helplessly as government forces gang raped her sister-in-law, burned her village and attacked civilians. Despite the peacekeepers presence next-door, the 2016 crimes at Terrain Hotel duplicate earlier incidents. Instead, atrocities such as sexual and gender-based violence have become a regular part of life and a reoccurring fear for South Sudanese women. Brutal attacks against civilians dominate the civil war in South Sudan and illustrate the desperate need for a successful UN mission. Criticism of the UN response sparked an official investigation into peacekeepers’ behavior, finding widespread unwillingness to intervene and contributing specific recommendations to reform the mission. The frantic pleas for UN peacekeepers stationed less than a mile away went unanswered throughout the hours-long assault. Several other women in that compound experienced the same brutality as the first. Troops charged with adrenaline after winning a battle against opposition forces celebrated by rampaging through a residential compound, those in the compound were forced to watch soldiers shoot dead a local journalist and torture others. She remembers hearing him say, “either you have sex with me, or we make every man here rape you and then we shoot you in the head.” But there was really no choice. Fifteen South Sudanese soldiers raped her that night. A woman aid-worker seeking refuge from violent fighters in the streets at the Terrain Hotel looked up to see a soldier pointing his AK-47 at her, offering a choice.
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