Bentiu, South Sudan β Nyagai desperately wants her two girls to come home from a camp where relentless rape, starvation, and sickness pervades. The fighting officially ended on paper last month, but the pain remains for survivors. The names of abductees and their horror stories that Al Jazeera collected during dozens of interviews are too many to convey. Others were shot for simply not being good enough as sex slaves, survivors said, with the elderly thrown into huts lit on fire to be burned alive.
During interviews Al Jazeera conducted with former abductees and close relatives, it emerged that the abduction, trade, and enslavement of women was calculated and organised. Older women taken to Mayom and Koch counties were often forced to carry stolen property from emptied villages by day, and have sex with multiple men at night. Women who resisted the rapes were shot. During one porter trip, Sarah decided to risk sudden death over a lifetime of rape and escaped. During the April-September fighting at least 1, civilians were killed, 1, women and girls were raped, and 1, women and children were abducted in Leer, Mayendit, and Koch counties, according to a recent report by charities working on civilian protection.
In Nyaldiu, a former rebel stronghold in Rubkona county, year-old Nyaruop told Al Jazeera that youth from Mayom county β some wearing army uniforms β surrounded the village and opened fire. She ran but looked back, and saw two girls she recognised being tackled to the ground and dragged off. They pushed her away as she pleaded with them to take the cows and go. Taker denied allegations of attacks and the abduction of women and girls.
But like her year-old daughter, they came and went. Armed groups in Unity state accused of abducting, raping and killing boys and girls as young as seven years old. By Hannah McNeish. UN: South Sudan army raped girls and burned them alive. South Sudan groups accused of abusing children. More from Features. The out of body girl: My fragmented life with dissociation. These Iranian woman are crushing it in crypto. Most Read. Biden expresses support for Gaza ceasefire amid mounting pressure.
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