from ANYANG GARANG in Juba, South Sudan
South Sudan Bureau
JUBA,(CAJ News) – CONFLICT-RELATED violence is on the rise in South Sudan, underscoring the fragility of peace in the world’s youngest nation.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Human Rights Division (HRD) has documented 334 incidents between April and June 2025, affecting 1 518 civilians.
Among them, 635 were killed, 676 injured, 133 abducted and 74 subjected to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV).
Compared to the previous quarter (January–March 2025), incidents rose by 7 percent, though the overall number of victims decreased slightly by 6 percent.
While killings, injuries, and abductions all declined marginally, CRSV cases surged dramatically by 85 percent.
Year-on-year comparisons paint an even grimmer picture.
Against the same quarter in 2024, violent incidents increased by 5 percent, while the number of victims jumped by a staggering 43 percent.
Killings rose by 44 percent, injuries by 128 percent, although abductions fell by 32 percent.
UNMISS attributed the majority of attacks to community-based militias and civil defense groups (68 percent or 1 036 victims).
Conventional armed groups and warring parties were responsible for 29 percent (438 victims)—a significant increase of 127 percent compared to the previous quarter, and up 204 percent from the same period last year.
Opportunistic armed elements accounted for the remaining 3 percent.
“Concerningly, the number of victims attributable to conventional parties to the conflict and other armed groups continues to rise,” UNMISS warned, pointing to escalating instability in contested regions.
South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, fell into civil war just two years later.
Although a 2020 unity government brought together President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his then-deputy Riek Machar, political tensions and ethnic rivalries have continued to fuel violence.
Machar has since been suspended, further destabilizing the fragile coalition.
Today, the nation of 12 million remains trapped between post-war recovery and recurring cycles of armed conflict, leaving civilians to bear the brunt of the violence.
— CAJ News