Correction, 1/12: An earlier version of this story said that the UN's Godfrey Musila visited the Upper Nile region. This was incorrect. He visited Equatorias.

A UN commission on human rights in South Sudan has said a steady process of ethnic cleansing is underway in the country, involving massacres, starvation, gang rape and the destruction of villages.

On Wednesday, three commission members who had travelled around South Sudan for 10 days said they observed deepening divisions in a country with 64 ethnic groups.

"There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages," commission chairwoman Yasmin Sooka told a news conference.

"The stage is being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda and the international community is under an obligation to prevent it."

The alleged ethnic cleansing comes after almost three years of fighting between government forces, rebel troops and allied militias. A political split between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar escalated into a military conflict in December 2013.

The conflict - which has killed tens of thousands, caused widespread hunger and forced three million people from their homes - has pitted Kiir's Dinka ethnic group against Machar's Nuer ethnic group and other groups suspected of supporting the rebels.

"You have so many different groups of armed actors, including the military who are talking about dealing with a rebellion and putting it down," Sooka told Al Jazeera in a separate interview.

"You have ethnic tensions because people have been displaced from their land based on ethnicity. Everybody believes that a military conflict is almost inevitable in different parts of the country."

READ MORE: South Sudan's displaced face hunger

Adama Dieng, UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, has called on the Security Council to impose an arms embargo to prevent the ethnic violence from escalating into full-on genocide.

In the Equatorias region, the commission "heard numerous accounts of corpses being found along the main roads," the UN's Godfrey Musila said.

The ethnic attacks have spread even to the southern Equatoria region, which had not experienced much violence until now, he said.

"The commissioner said that armed conflict could be averted if targeted sanctions, arms embargo and a hybrid court is set up to hold those accountable for crimes committed," Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said, reporting from Juba.

"The UN Security Council is expected to vote on targeted sanctions and an arms embargo this week, but the hybrid court … seems far from becoming a reality."

Separately, the UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan said he was "deeply concerned" about bureaucratic impediments and access constraints to humanitarian agencies trying to help people in need.

The statement said 91 such incidents had been recorded in November alone.

"Humanitarian organisations in South Sudan are striving every day to save lives and alleviate suffering across this country," humanitarian coordinator Eugene Owusu said. "Yet, they continue to face obstacles and challenges which hamper their efforts."

'Potential for genocide'

The United States on Wednesday also warned of escalating violence.

"We have credible information that the South Sudanese government is currently targeting civilians in Central Equatoria and preparing for large-scale attacks in the coming days or weeks," Keith Harper, the US representative at the UN Human Rights Council, said in Geneva.

OPINION: Save South Sudan from destroying itself

"In the last two weeks, the government has mobilised at least 4,000 militia from other areas of South Sudan and is staging these fighters in Equatoria to begin conducting attacks," Harper said.

Earlier this month the UN's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, told the Security Council there was a risk of "outright ethnic war" and the "potential for genocide".

The UN rights experts are expected to publish a report on their findings in March.</s>UN human rights experts on Thursday said "ethnic cleansing" was under way in South Sudan after visiting the country where violence has soared since a peace deal collapsed in July.

"There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages; everywhere we went across this country we heard villagers saying they are ready to shed blood to get their land back," said Yasmin Sooka of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.

Sooka was part of a three-member team which travelled to battleground towns including Bentiu, Malakal and Wau to gather facts about the situation in the world's youngest country.

Jarring testimony gathered by the team during their 10-day visit shows a nation on the brink of "catastrophe", said a statement issued by the commission.

"The stage is being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda and the international community is under an obligation to prevent it," said Sooka.

At a press conference in Juba on Wednesday, Sooka warned of "unprecedented levels of violence and ethnic tension" without using the term ethnic cleansing, a war crime closely related to genocide which refers more to groups being forcibly removed from a particular area.

Hopes that an August 2015 peace deal would bring peace to the young nation were dashed when fighting erupted in Juba in July, leading to a surge of violence around the country characterised by divisions between the country's 64 tribes.

Sooka said on Wednesday that government and rebel armies were both forcibly recruiting soldiers — including children — and warned that "renewed recruitment is an indicator that all the parties are preparing for the next conflict".

Keith Harper, the US ambassador to the UN rights council warned that the government appeared to be preparing for large scale attacks, and had in the past two weeks mobilised at least 4,000 militia fighters to the southern Equatoria region.

Among the atrocities reported to the commission was widespread gang rape, with some women unable to receive medical treatment for the complications suffered after sexual attacks.

"The scale of rape of women and girls perpetrated by all armed groups in South Sudan is utterly unacceptable and is frankly mind boggling," said Sooka.

However hopes of a fresh start for the oil-rich nation were quickly dashed as internal political divisions burst to the surface, fracturing the government and people along ethnic lines with devastating consequences.

"An existing conflict, resort to polarised ethnic identities, dehumanisation, a culture of denial, displacement based on ethnicity and in some places indications of systematic violations and planning — but the important thing is there is still time to prevent it," she said.</s>Soldiers of the Sudan People Liberation Army are in Lelo, northern South Sudan, on October 16, 2016 after heavy fighting broke out two days earlier. By Albert Gonzalez Farran (AFP/File)

Juba (AFP) - UN human rights experts on Thursday said "ethnic cleansing" was underway in South Sudan after visiting the country where violence has soared since a peace deal collapsed in July.

"There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages; everywhere we went across this country we heard villagers saying they are ready to shed blood to get their land back," said Yasmin Sooka of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.

"Many told us it's already reached a point of no return."

Sooka was part of a three-member team which travelled to battleground towns such as Bentiu, Malakal and Wau to gather facts about the situation in the world's youngest country.

Jarring testimony gathered by the team during their 10-day visit shows a nation on the brink of "catastrophe", said a statement issued by the commission.

"The stage is being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda and the international community is under an obligation to prevent it," said Sooka.</s>Ethnic cleansing is taking place in some areas of South Sudan and the stage is set for a repeat of the Rwandan genocide, the head of the U.N. commission of human rights in the country said on Thursday at the end of a 10-day visit.

“There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing under way in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages; everywhere we went across this country we heard villagers saying they are ready to shed blood to get their land back,” Yasmin Sooka said in a statement.

“The stage is being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda and the international community is under an obligation to prevent it,” she said, referring to Rwanda’s 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people died.

The president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, strongly denied the U.N. allegations.

“There’s no such thing in South Sudan. There’s no ethnic cleansing,” Kiir told Reuters in the South African city of Johannesburg. Security guards prevented further questions.

The three-person commission was set up this year and will report back to the the U.N. Human Rights Council next March. Similar investigations into North Korea and Eritrea ended in calls to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, but neither case has reached the court.

South Sudan has spent most of its short history mired in civil war. It became independent in 2011 but rivalry between the president and his deputy erupted into war in 2013. They signed a shaky peace deal last year, but fighting and attacks on civilians continue. Much of the violence is along ethnic lines.

More than 1.1 million South Sudanese have fled the country and 1.8 million have been uprooted, most recently in the Equatoria regions, where houses are being torched and people being displaced based on ethnicity, the statement said.

The commission heard “numerous accounts of corpses being found along main roads, looming starvation and people fleeing to neighbouring countries on a daily basis.”

The international community needed to speed up deployment of a 4,000 strong regional protection force, ensuring its reach went beyond the capital Juba.

South Sudan also urgently needed a court to prosecute human rights abuses, the commission said.

“Large parts of the country literally have no functioning courts and even the traditional reconciliation methods are now breaking down with the result that it’s a free for all,” said commissioner Ken Scott.

Sooka described the amount of rape committed by all armed groups in the country as “mind-boggling.”

“Aid workers describe gang rape as so prevalent that it’s become ‘normal’ in this warped environment but what does that say about us that we accept this and thereby condemn these women to this unspeakable fate?”</s>Shantal Persaud Acting Spokesperson: Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this press briefing that is also being broadcast live on UN Radio Miraya.

Joining us today, are members of the UN Human Rights Commission who are visiting South Sudan for the second time, and many of you as journalists in the room will recall the Commission were here two months ago, and briefed us on September 15.

The Commission have been in country for the last 10 days and have done a fair bit of travelling to the regions, including Bentiu, Malakal (and Wau Shilluk), Torit, Wau, Aweil and Kuda

The Commission is mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and report on the human rights situation in South Sudan and make recommendations for its improvement to the Transitional Government of National Unity.

While in South Sudan, the team have held meetings and engaged in discussions with a number of stakeholders including the First Vice President CSO, religious leaders, International dip. Corp and other UN agencies

Ms. Yasmin Sooka is Chairperson of the team a leading human rights lawyer, she is currently serving as Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa, Mr. Kenneth Scott, a researcher on South Sudan with Amnesty International and, Mr. Godfrey M Musila a legal consultant for Avocats sans Frontieres.

I’d like to start by thanking all the victims of violations who spoke to us during this trip. Many had suffered unspeakable atrocities and yet somehow found it in themselves to recount their ordeals to us. I particularly want to thank several women gang raped in the violence in Juba in July who live in the Protection of Civilian camp number 3 who told us their stories even though they have yet to receive medical attention for the physical injuries they sustained, they’ve also yet to receive any kind of redress or legal access for the crimes that have been committed against them. It is completely unacceptable that South Sudanese mothers have to face rape daily to feed their hungry children but even worse that this huge international aid presence cannot reach these women afterwards and they are left feeling abandoned.

Across the country the victims we met exhibited fatigue and frustration with the constant visits from members of the international community. They told us “people from human rights” keep on coming, then go away, there is no feedback, and nothing changes. One woman in the Malakal Protection of Civilian site asked me why I wasted money on the air ticket if I was unable to solve their problems. In Wau, an interviewee said, `We don’t need another report. We need the international community to do something. All I could do is promise to speak out loudly about their plight and so did my colleagues in the areas that they visited as well.

I don’t need to tell a room full of journalists that there are unprecedented levels of violence and ethnic tension all over South Sudan. Any sense of national identity is crumbling and tribal identity taking over. Given this country is home to 64 tribes this offers a multitude of fault lines along with this nation can fracture. I repeatedly heard of the desire for revenge and a process of concentrating people from one tribe – the Dinka - in the army and civil service. Coupled with that is the fact that forced and child recruitment is being conducted by all parties to the conflict and has even involved NGO staff being swept up and taken to military barracks and then later released after showing their identity cards. This renewed recruitment is an indicator that all parties are preparing for conflict.

I and my colleagues visited Protection of Civilian sites in Juba, Malakal, Wau and Bentiu. I am concerned there is no secondary education in these camps which are like small towns – that means a whole generation will be lost as a result of the years of enforced displacement. Young men could be seen loitering on street corners, playing cards and gambling and getting drunk. “These are people who are not seeing a future,” is how one aid worker summed it up to me.

Many camp residents described a pervading sense of insecurity – they said the camps were like prisons. One person said, “You hear bullets all the time and it’s not animals being killed – it’s human beings all the time”.

Women in the camps recounted gruesome acts of sexual and gender based violence to us – describing being forcefully taken from their homes, dragged into bushes, and tied to trees and being raped in abandoned buildings.

On the day we visited Bentiu Protection of Civilian site we heard reports that three women had been raped outside the site that same day. We also met a woman from Leer raped by soldiers on the road to Bentiu some days before.

In Juba an elderly woman narrated her traumatic rape ordeal days after the cessation of fighting here in July. We heard how the woman had prevented her daughter from going out to search for food, believing her age meant she was not at risk of being raped. To her horror, she was ambushed, gang raped and left for dead and today cannot sit for long periods because of the untreated injuries.

Some women asked me why they are not invited to participate in the political process at a national level. One asked why the chairperson of JMEC doesn’t transport them all to take part in discussions – and it’s a good question.

Throughout the country there is a total breakdown of law and order with hardly any formal courts of law in operation and in Unity State for example, even the traditional village mediation system run by tribal chiefs has ceased to function.

As one woman put it to me, “In South Sudan there is no law. What is here is the law of the jungle. Whoever is the most powerful dominates”.

The central issue raised with us again and again is that of land grabbing, in a situation where very few members of the Dinka tribe are being displaced. The overriding sentiment across the country is that those displaced are now willing to fight to regain their land. Many expect intensified fighting now the dry season is setting in.

Many victims expressed a desire for the alleged perpetrators of violations to be held accountable in the proposed hybrid court or even in an international court. They said it was not necessary to wait for peace before setting up such a justice mechanism. As you know part of our mandate is to look at the chapter five of the Peace Agreement and transitional justice issues and we will be producing a report for the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for March next year addressing some of these questions.

I should also like to take this opportunity to raise the issue of freedom of expression. Across the board all journalists we spoke to felt themselves in peril. Journalists should be able to exercise their right to freedom of expression, including interviewing opposition figures and critics of the Government – acts that in themselves do not amount to incitement or hate speech. If the Government feels a media outlet has broken the law it should take those responsible to court, not threaten and harm reporters and arbitrarily close down media outlets.

Apart from the bravery of journalists in this country I should also like to pay tribute to local human rights defenders. It’s easy for us to fly in and hold press conferences but these are the people who risk their lives on a daily basis. I’d also like to mention the doctors and staff of the tiny clinic in Wau Shilluk I visited who had been forced to flee Malakal Town but continue to work without salaries in order to serve their people, this is the same for teachers who have been transferred because they belong to the wrong ethnic group. That’s true public service.

Several people told me they wouldn’t be alive today without the efforts of the United Nations and humanitarian agencies. I am concerned that the government authorities have abnegated their responsibility to provide even the most basic services for their citizens. The UN and its humanitarian partners have stepped into the void. They now risk facing a dilemma about speaking out strongly over rights violations for fear it could jeopardize humanitarian access, with the result that hundreds of thousands of people could be denied food and medical care.

We have said the international community has a responsibility to prevent mass killings and mass atrocities – as you know the UN Special Rapporteur on Genocide has issued a warning. As we see it, several of the indicators and enabling factors are there but that doesn’t of course mean it’s inevitable. There are several steps that should be taken NOW to avert catastrophe – these are sanctions, asset freezes, an arms embargo, the immediate deployment of the 4000 strong protection force in South Sudan which should not be restricted to the capital alone.

Long term I would urge those who work with victims who are losing hope to keep on documenting the violations, documenting is like your insurance policy, it may not be used now but in the future it can be used for accountability. If the crimes are not recorded that is the one sure way of ensuring those responsible get away with them. The figures of course for IDPs and refugees are startling, at this point South Sudan shares the privilege of being one in four countries that has more than one million outside of the country and of course it has more than three million people who have been displaced. That means in a country of twelve million people, almost one in four people are either refugees, or they are in displacement camps. From what we have heard, 9300 teachers have left the country, only one third has left. And figures suggest that about 60% of UN national staff have their families outside of the country.

These are not good figures, because what they speak to is a very disturbing indicator. You know at this point the economic instability in the country is a challenge; inflation has exceeded almost 900%. Usually when you have economic instability together with an indicator around dehumanization; the question of localized conflicts and the question of ‘normalization’ of serious crimes, the killings… these things don’t disturb us anymore because we hear them every day.

That kind of indifference is very dangerous and I would urge that both south Sudanese leadership, the international community including the African Union and IGAD really need to stop the war talk, the hate speech and they need to stop the violence in the country. People need to take away people’s arms and there needs to be an arms embargo, there needs to be targeted sanctions, and above all there needs to be accountability for the impunity which has become endemic in the country over the last few years.

CCTV- Many of the people from UN agencies who come to South Sudan visit almost the same places: Juba PoC, Wau sometimes, Bentiu, Malakal… but there are new challenges in terms of human rights violations, insecurity in other parts of the country; in Imatong for example, the former eastern Equatoria state, former western and even central Equatoria. Don’t you think that these visits, same kind of places is giving you a narrower understanding of the human rights situation in South Sudan?

Number two: This commission or committee is also supposed to advise the National Unity Government on transitional justice. Is there anything that you have done as far as this is concerned?

And perhaps the last question is that many of the reports that come out are more or less the same: human rights abuses and so forth. Is the UN doing anything to help build institutions for example… you say for example the justice system was broken down, the security… we know that our security sector needs reform, there is maybe a need for professionalising the armed forces. In most cases when these kinds of reports come out the reaction is withdrawal of support to the government by various international organisations and donors. In this case, South Sudan remains in a vicious cycle of problems like the judiciary is not empowered, the armed forces are not being professionalised and the problem continues. How is the world body helping in building institutions in South Sudan? Thank you.

Kenneth Scott – Commissioner - We have in fact engaged in extensive meetings and consultations with senior officials and other who were directly involved, or should be, or will be involved in that process on both of our visits… in September and during this visit we’ve met with the minister of justice, the deputy minister of justice, we’ve had extensive discussions with them about transitional justice and in particular the hybrid court. We have met with the First Vice President, Taban Deng, with the cabinet minister, with the foreign minister, with the chief justice, with the head of the SPLA military justice system, with civil society, with the transitional justice working group, and with people at the African Union in Addis. We are in fact engaged in a number of ongoing conversations to advocate for all the institutions contemplated by chapter five of the Peace Agreement, especially the hybrid court because as Yasmin said, we are in full agreement that one of the keys to eventually solving this very tragic and unfortunate conflict is accountability; to break the cycle of impunity and in order to do that we must have working judicial systems.

As we reported in September, it is unfortunate that we find the progress to be very slow. The African Union has not done as much as we would have liked by now, as you may know, the African Union bears the principle initial responsibility at least to establish the hybrid court. We have met with senior officials of the African Union in September and we will be meeting them again next week. We do understand that the African Union is about to begin consultations with the transitional government here in Juba and also undertake meetings with the United Nations. Some progress is beginning to be made; we hope that it will pick up very substantial speed in the very near future. We endorse the hybrid court, that’s one of the priorities that we want to see happen as soon as possible.

DPA News Agency- Can you inform us on the number of victims you found in Juba PoC, Malakal PoC and Bentiu? A week ago or two weeks ago there was a report released by Amnesty International and other human rights bodies about the violations. The question is: “what’s next as a commission?”

In addition to that you have said that the justice system in the country is not actually [inaudible] due to some issues, so what are your recommendation? Do you opt for an outside court like the ICC?

Godfrey Musila – Commissioner- It is true that until now most reports have focused on areas of the country that were thought to be hot spots but as a commission we decided… particularly after what happened in July… it appears that the violence has spread to the Equatorias and based on our visits and speaking to people, we have established that the situation is much more serious and more concerning than earlier thought. We visited eastern Equatoria; we were in Imatong, and we spoke to the governor, to civil society and the UN on the ground and we were able to visit Monti Orphanage which has been in the news for a variety of reasons, it seems to be caught between an SPLA checkpoint or camp and suspected IO and other fighters on the other side of the river. We also went to other parts in central Equatoria, we went to Kuda and we learned a number of things that have happened to people in that particular place; the fact that they have been displaced to different places.

As a commission, our mandate includes ‘monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation in the country’, we look at human rights in their totality, not just human rights that are related to personal integrity – murder, rape and so on – we also look at the socio-economic rights so we try to cover as much geographical ground as possible.

About the institutions and the justice system: South Sudan is in the middle of a conflict, serious violations are happening. The question one must ask is: “how can you conduct institutional reforms in the middle of a conflict?” We do have a peace agreement that appears to have stalled although we need some institutional reforms to make the transitional government work. The African Union conducted an inquiry in 2014 and in its report there is an entire chapter that focuses on institutional reforms. It proposes wide ranging reforms. One hopes that when things stabilise and the transitional government begins to work as it should, reforms will begin to be undertaken.

Accountability and particularly chapter five of the agreement is unlikely to work without some minimal reforms of the justice sector. As a commission we are concerned about the state of institutions. You will not be able to conduct investigations and present evidence without looking at the state of the prosecution authorities in the country. Our mandate also touches on assessing the technical needs of the country to deal with accountability. We are assessing the capacity to investigate, to document and ultimately the capacity to prosecute.

Kenneth Scott – Commissioner- In response to the geographical aspect I can also add that I was part of the small team that went into Bahr el Ghazal and I think it’s the first time that the commission ventured into the North West part of the country. We visited Wau and Aweil state; in Wau we met with the deputy governor in [inaudible] of the senior military security and law enforcement officials. In Aweil we met with the governor of the state, the prosecutors, the judges, the police commissioner, the security forces… so we have engaged in extensive meetings and conversations in these two other states. We are getting a bigger picture, fortunately for Wau and Aweil they are not Bentiu nor Leer or Yei but the concerning thing about those areas is that they have generally been considered relatively peaceful places compared to some of the others. The big difference now is that there is a dramatic increase in ethnic tensions and insecurity. That represents the evolution of the nature and the geographic expansion of the conflict beyond Greater Upper Nile, or Eastern Equatoria even into the Bahr el Ghazals and that’s concerning.

Yasmin Sooka – Chairperson Human Rights Commission- My team also went to Bentiu and Malakal but we also took a boat ride down to Wau Shilluk and the residence of Wau Shilluk and the PoC in Malakal have people who have been displaced from Malakal town. We also met with local authorities and the representatives of the governor as well as the police commissioner and raised many of the concerns that residents raised with us. I can only say that the displacement of people from their ancestral lands is certainly creating an enormous instability in the Upper Nile region and that coupled with food insecurity; the fact that people are not able to attend to their harvests is also creating huge challenges.

My colleagues also mentioned the fact that we weren’t only looking at the civil and political rights violations but also the question of socio-economic issues. One of the responsibilities we have is to look at chapter five of the Peace Agreement and the question of the transitional justice agenda. While chapter five talks about institutional mechanisms, the underlying philosophy of transitional justice is really looking at how you deal with violations, the rights of people to the truth, the rights of people to justice and the guarantee of non-recurrence. The guarantee of non-recurrence is really about institutional reform; it’s about how you ensure that the judiciary works, the question of security sector reform, the question of the civil service. One troubling issue is that people on the civil service payroll in Malakal town where in fact transferred by some kind of administrative decree which transferred them to a non-existent job and most of them are displaced in Wau Shilluk but continue to do their jobs without any kind of pay. You can imagine what kind of tensions these are causing. These are not healthy situations.

Radio Miraya – Thank you for this opportunity, based on your findings what can you say about the preservation of evidence these gross violations?

VOA – Madam you did say there is renewed recruitment probably I presume by the parties. Specifically where this recruitment and any figures on how many people have been recruited, are they children? and is it a case that is nationwide or just in some specific places . The last question is what is your message to South Sudanese citizens who say that the peace agreement no longer holds or the peace agreement is no longer working?

Kenneth Scott, Commissioner – the question about the collection and preservation of evidence is a very good question. It is absolutely essential that the process starts and again the commission as a whole and myself, and I say myself because this is what I’ve been advocating for at least two years. But the commission as a whole highly endorses the fact that we have to get some investigation element on the ground as soon as possible. It should’ve been there a long time ago. What’s happening now is there is no one unit or one organization charged with collecting and preserving evidence. Maybe one NGO collects a few documents or few witness statements, some villagers collect evidence but it is not being centralized; it is not being coordinated. It is not being preserved. When there are accountability proceedings someday, prosecutors will need evidence to go to court. If that evidence is not collected and preserved now, then there won’t be any evidence. I was a prosecutor for Yugoslavia tribune for 10 years. So I have prosecuted many war crime cases. I can’t go into the court room if I have no evidence to present; witnesses, documents, physical evidence. It is critical that this capacity be created as soon as possible. This is something we have been talking about, something we raised with the African Union. It does not need to wait for a full blown court to be set up- virtually all international tribunals and I have researched myself have been preceded by some other international investigative mechanism . In Bosnia, in Lebanon, in Cambodia, in Sierra Leone, they’ve always been interim or preliminary investigative mechanisms. That was needed in South Sudan, It is needed yesterday. So that’s one of the things that we are pushing for and again we don’t need a full court to be set up ; we can set up the investigative component first and build the rest of the court as we go if that is what it takes .

Yasmin Sooka – Chairperson Human Rights Commission - It is very difficult to give you figures on the question of recruitment and the question of forced conscription, but one is always confronted by the fact that is communities who feel that they are under siege and attack, they speak about voluntarily joining to fight and that the sons and husbands voluntarily join different forces. But in terms of the monitoring that is taking place both by the humanitarian community and of course the UN on the ground, there is no doubt that forced recruitment is up, certainly in the Upper Nile it is happening.

Godfrey Musila – Commissioner – In responding to the question posed by Mr. Wiki Simon,” What can we tell South Sudanese, those who say the peace agreement no longer holds?”

Obviously the commission has been aware of what has been going around the peace agreement and its implementation. We met with JMEC which is established under the agreement of reconciliation, resolution of conflict in South Sudan, which is nominated under the agreement to monitor its implementation. And the detail, the challenge that they are facing as an institution. if you take the view that the departure, under the circumstances we know, of one of the parties to the conflict, one signatory to the agreement and his replacement by First Vice President Deng Gai, if you see that as problematic and as fundamentally altering the circumstances, you will have a valid reason to suggest that the peace agreement does not exist or is dead. But if you take the view that his replacement has some credibility, then the question is really whether the government that is in place is legitimate. And we have spoken to people around the places we went who aren’t happy with the turn of events. We have learnt about the relative unpopularity of the First Vice President and the fact they feel that they are no longer part of the transitional government.

In the view of the commission, we think that of course as of now there is President in place and what happened has happened – the question is whether enough can be done to broaden the government in a manner that is consistent with the agreement. We have learned of a planned national dialogue, whose contours, objective and the form it will take are still clear and are being discussed formally within the government. We heard from the Chair of the Peace and Reconciliation commission which is an existing body that they proposed this national dialogue to the government and the government is running with it. They do not think , at least the Chair of the Peace and Reconciliation commission does not think that this national dialogue replaces the peace agreement because we have concerns that this may be the intention.

In our view as a commission and in the view of the international community as far as we understand, the framework for dealing with the situation in South Sudan is the agreement that was signed and one hopes that enough will be done to bring it back on the rails and implement it in a way that of course moves the process forward. From a human rights perspective the challenge is the peace agreement is facing, generating more violations every day. And it’s our wish that enough is done and the recommendations that we’ve made and in fact touched specifically to this particular aspect.

Yasmin Sooka – Chairperson Human Rights Commission I think it is really important that particularly the African Union and the regional players in IGAD , there needs to be a discussion with all the parties who are taking up arms . The idea that there can be a military solution is a zero sum game. And it is really important to be able to get people to be genuinely committed to peace. If you speak to all the women around the country there are two words they use; ‘we need justice for the crime perpetrated against us’ and “we need peace.” And as said in my statement, the women in all the places we visited said, “Why don’t they take us? We are the ones on daily basis living with instability and the insecurity that war has brought. ’ . If one learns from an example of the region and other regions, in Sierra Leone, it was the Mano River women who actually began the first real discussion about peace and forced the political leadership to come to the table. In Liberia the woman were initially excluded from the peace process; they bought their own plane tickets and they went to Accra and sat outside until they were called to the conference hall where the so called male leadership where discussing the war that they had created. I think there are a few words that I’d leave you with: one is legitimacy, there needs to be a legitimate process, it has to be seen to be credible, not a tick box approach where you tick the boxes but at the same time you are preparing for conflict.

And the third of course is inclusive. I think part of the problem here is it is almost being a binary conflict perceived to be between two groups. But really you need other players around the table. You need women, you need faith communities, you need young people who are the real victims of this conflict with women and they need to be brought to the table to discuss, “how do you end the conflict and how do you begin a political process to really bring peace to this country?’’. In my view that’s the only way forward.

There is an enormous resilience in this country, despite the hardship and the deprivation the people have been going through. Nevertheless they continue to find joy in the little things that they do and as I said one of the most impressive things was actually watching in Wau shilluk how these doctors were displaced and medical health workers had actually created this hospital to serve the people without real resources and without any kind of pay . That’s still a belief in South Sudan and there’s a real need to say, what it actually means to be a South Sudanese first. I think that question of identity is really very important. I can’t really say enough about the people on the ground: the humanitarian workers, UN and Human rights division who continue to soldier on faithfully every single day. They don’t have to be here, they don’t have to do this kind of work, but they do it in circumstances which is extremely challenging . And I think we don’t pay enough attention and appreciation to their work. National staff working for the UN and for the Humanitarian workers, almost every day they are under siege. The number of national staff who were being picked up who were abducted, who were questioned, tortured, beaten – this is increasing and these are signals that things are not well.

Eye Radio – How would you assess the situation of the country in your current visit compared to your visit in September, given the fact that in September when it was just the aftermath of the July incident, and now you are visiting the country when the violence is spreading across the country, what is your assessment ?

Dawn Newspaper – Ms. Sooka you talked about sanctions and targeted sanctions on the parties, the parties have been so vocal against sanctions and targeted sanctions. What would be the way forward or are their other things you’d bring to put an end to the conflict?

Xinhua News Agency – During your first visit to South Sudan in September the team emphasized on the establishment of the Hybrid Court by the AU, and today also it is something you hinted, and it seems nothing is moving forward. I would like to know whether you are disappointed by the slow progress of the establishment of the Hybrid Court, thank you.

Kenneth Scott, Commissioner –It’s fair to say, I think we can say candidly but unfortunately we are disappointed with the pace of the hybrid court. There were many of us that were hopeful , that the progress would be much quicker , granted it would take time to set up an international court or hybrid court , it could be done much quicker . I will give you one specific example; the tribunal for Yugoslavia granted it was a different animal; it was a created by the UN Security Council under charter 7 powers. But from the date of the Security Council resolution to the date of the opening of the courts is one year, 12 months. If that same sort of progress would’ve been made concerning the hybrid court to South Sudan, that court would’ve opened its doors last August. And cases would be being processed right now. So we are disappointed. Having said that trying to be a bit optimistic, there seems to be some indication that they are putting up some speed , we know the African Union has been trying to put funding together to higher necessary experts and consultants . We know that they are about to be in the process of consultation with the South Sudanese government and the United Nations. So after sixteen moths perhaps, we are just beginning to see a little bit of progress.

Godfrey Musila – Commissioner - On the assessment of the Human Rights situation if you compare our visit in September to now, I think the chair has said to this point. I think the overall human rights situation has worsened. Obviously the geography has expanded to the Equatorias-it appears to be kind of low level but its effect is as serious as we’ve seen from much high profile incidents. The number of people leaving the country, if it’s an indicator at all appears to be growing. Internal displacements happening in the Equatorians-we learned for instance around Magbi (inaudible)County which is I think the most affected County in the Equatorial we had met newly arrived refugees in Uganda in September and it appears the situation here on the ground here has in fact worsened .Although it appears that the guns have gone silent in some parts of the country that previously were hotspots ,we still have low levels of violations, no less serious we’ve documented the Chair spoke of the rapes happening daily , the killings that have been recorded. So overall if you consider social economic rights as well: looting and burning of farms - what appears to be orchestrated displacement or at least conditions being created- lack of access to food, insecurities created by presence of armed elements that are forcing people off their land away from their own food .Overall the situation is in fact dire and I think that our report reflects the worsening humanitarian situation.

Yasmin Sooka – Chairperson Human Rights Commission -Somebody asked about sanctions. There are limited sanctions in place but really the international community is suggesting that those should be expanded and of course as yes individuals, we have assets sitting in other countries which quite frankly should be frozen and brought back to the country so that it can benefit people. The other thing of course is they have their children in schools and universities in other parts of the world but here people are starving they don't go to school and in a sense it is an expatriate lifestyle because you have the money to be able to do so and the political powerful position.

I think the third question is banking accounts which sit in neighboring countries. There needs to be serious attention given to making sure that what belongs to the people of South Sudan should be brought back to South Sudan .People are not suggesting sanctions in isolation there is also a talk of arms embargo. Wherever you go in those places that we visited everybody has a gun and people are arming themselves you can imagine even if it is a localized conflict that turns into a major homicide incident. In Juba itself there was a domestic dispute and ended up with somebody having a hand grenade and that went off. What worries me is when we listen to those litany of horrors we can become so indifferent to it and I think that is when you reach dangerous point and so it's really important to be able to say this is unacceptable and there needs to be some urgent action taken and that's what people are saying: let's stop talking about reports and words and let's see action and that's a challenge for the regional players for IGAD for the African Union and the International Community .This can't go on anymore.

I think we've kind of reached the end of all time so I would like to express my appreciation to all of you for coming today

Acting Spokesperson Shantal Persaud - Thank you for your participation this brings us to the end of this the press briefing today with the human rights commission, thank you</s>The Security Council is balking at an arms embargo that is too little, too late for the world’s youngest nation.

Faced with a dire U.N. warning of a possible genocide in South Sudan, the United States was set this week to finally embrace an arms embargo against the world’s newest country to ratchet down the military might of its warring parties and, potentially, help spare the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire of worsening civil war.

But the effort, which Washington delayed for more than two years, may now be coming too late. The South Sudanese military, which built up its arsenal during three years of civil war, is poised to launch an offensive as the annual dry season — prime time for fighting — resumes in December. And U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, struggling to mount an international response to the killing, has been forced to shelve its planned sanctions after American diplomats realized they couldn’t muster the nine votes necessary for U.N. Security Council approval.

On Wednesday, Keith Harper, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council, told diplomats in Geneva that South Sudan’s government has mobilized 4,000 troops to carry out attacks against towns in the country’s southern Equatoria provinces, where he said at least 1,901 homes have been destroyed in fighting over the last two months.

“We have credible information that the South Sudanese government is currently targeting civilians in Central Equatoria and preparing for large-scale attacks in the coming days or weeks,” Harper said.

An arms embargo, even if delayed, could still reduce the scale of military fighting over time, said Edmund Yakani, the executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO). “I wish the United States could have done this right away when the violence started in 2013,” he told Foreign Policy in a Skype interview from Juba, South Sudan’s capital.

“The possibility of genocide is high,” Yakani said.

But in New York, officials said Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., has put off new plans to call for a Security Council vote for the arms embargo. The American-drafted resolution, shelved Tuesday, also would have imposed targeted sanctions against top South Sudanese officials, according to Security Council diplomats.

The U.S. strategy for South Sudan in the 15-nation council is at risk of unraveling. It faces resistance not only from traditional rivals, including China, Russia, and Venezuela, and from the African states of Angola, Egypt, and Senegal. But it is also opposed by close American allies, including Japan, which is reluctant to confront South Sudan while hundreds of its own peacekeepers are there. Malaysia has also expressed reservations over the text.

A separate U.S.-backed push by the United Nations to send more than 4,000 additional U.N. peacekeeping reinforcements to South Sudan, primarily based in Juba, has been fiercely resisted by the country’s officials, fueling pessimism over the prospects of them ever deploying. A key potential contributor, Kenya, has meanwhile pulled out of the U.N. operation. Nairobi is protesting a recent decision by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to fire the mission’s Kenyan force commander for failing to protect civilians during a bout of fighting violence in Juba last summer that effectively marked the de facto death of the country’s peace process.

“The Security Council has lost its way on South Sudan,” said Richard Gowan, an expert on U.N. peacekeeping with the European Council on Foreign Relations. The combined effort of American diplomats and their Security Council partners, he said, “feels more like symbolic diplomacy than anything real.”

Gowan noted that the council’s focus on pouring reinforcements into Juba, which has calmed since the summer, may be misdirected. “It’s no longer a question of securing Juba,” he said. “An increased presence of U.N. peacekeepers in Juba is not going to affect the spreading chaos. The violence has already moved out to other regions.”

The United States remains committed to seeking the passage of an arms embargo. But this week’s setback provided a painful illustration of the waning influence of the Obama administration in its final weeks in power. It also reflected what some council diplomats view as a halting American diplomatic strategy that was marred by a failure to invest sufficient time in convincing wavering council members to support the measure.

The U.S. mission to the United Nations did not immediately provide comment for this story Wednesday. “I think they have completely bungled it,” said one observer who closely tracks the negotiations but would speak only on condition of anonymity. “They should have done the legwork and reached out to these countries before telling them they planned to table [the resolution].” A Security Council diplomat said the United States had made other tactical errors, piling on a raft of targeted sanctions against senior South Sudanese government officials that made it harder for countries, particular those with troops on the ground, to accept the arms embargo. The diplomat said the United States sat on a far better chance to push for the embargo last summer, when South Sudan’s government was facing international condemnation for its attacks on U.N. peacekeepers and international aid workers. “They kind of missed an opportunity,” said the diplomat, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. “I think they may be paying a price for their hesitation.” The United States held out the threat of an arms embargo for more than two years, but Susan Rice, Obama’s national security advisor, has been reluctant to pull the trigger, arguing internally that it could undermine a democratically elected government’s ability to defend itself against an insurgency that has also committed massive human rights abuses. Rice has also voiced concern that an embargo would be ineffective because South Sudan’s neighbors, including its military ally Uganda, would not enforce it even if one were imposed. But Rice and other senior U.S. officials have since given their blessing to a U.S. push for an arms embargo, reflecting mounting concern that South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has largely abandoned the peace process and plans to resolve the country’s political standoff through a return to war. South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013, when forces loyal to Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, opened fire on followers of his former vice president, Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer. The violence inside Juba targeted Nuer civilians for slaughter, prompting Machar to organize armed resistance to Kiir’s rule. That launched a civil war that evolved from a political struggle for power into an ethnic conflict that pits the majority Dinka against the country’s other tribes. “The warning signs are there,” Adama Dieng, the U.N. chief’s special advisor for the prevention of genocide, told the Security Council on Nov. 17, following a visit to South Sudan. “Throughout my visit, conversations with all actors confirmed that what began as a political conflict has transformed into what could become an outright ethnic war.” “Action can and must be taken now to address some of the factors that could provide fertile ground for genocide,” Dieng added. A shaky U.S.-backed power-sharing arrangement between Kiir and Machar collapsed in July, after a surge of fighting between their forces in Juba led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians and Machar fleeing the country. The United States subsequently cut off Machar, effectively throwing Washington’s support behind a government that has increasingly ruled solely on behalf of Dinkas. Machar, meanwhile, has called on his armed followers to resume resistance to Kiir and has pledged to return to South Sudan. Since July, violence has spread from Juba to greater Equatoria — where more than 200,000 people have fled a government offensive between July and October — and the Western Bahr el-Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Unity states. In Yei, armed forces linked to the government, and drawn primarily from the Dinka tribe, have reportedly carried out a brutal campaign of rapes, extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture, looting, and the burning of homes, according to a report published this month by a U.N. panel of experts. Members of South Sudan’s other tribes “see no viable forum to express political dissent, pursue reform or ensure their basic security,” the panel reported. In Central Equatoria, which encompasses Juba, armed opposition groups have responded by carrying out reprisals against Dinkas. That has spurred threats by Kiir to lead the army’s military offensive across the region. “[T]he war is increasingly characterized by the targeting of civilians on a tribal basis, given that it has evolved into what is widely perceived to be a zero-sum confrontation between the Dinka and non-Dinka tribes in many areas,” the U.N. panel concluded. The situation, the panel warned, holds the possibility for a “catastrophic escalation of violence.” Alan Boswell, a researcher for the Small Arms Survey who recently returned from the border between South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said eyewitnesses fleeing Central Equatoria described Dinka paramilitary forces ravaging other ethnic communities where “the rebellion is making headway.” “Ethnic cleansing has characterized this entire war,” Boswell told FP, relaying eyewitness descriptions of “villages looted and abandoned and civilians killed based on ethnicity.” Yakani of CEPO told FP that warring parties have stockpiled enough weapons and firepower to spur “massive fighting that could lead to the commitment of atrocities.” In Yei and other trouble spots, fighting has barred communities from gaining access to their farms, and “the humanitarian situation is getting worse every day,” he said. A breakdown in security, marked by a surge of armed robberies across the country, has increased in recent months, Yakani said. But the greatest fear among locals, he said, is of a “massive military confrontation.” Yakani added: “The citizens are losing hope in the peace agreement.” FP Africa editor Ty McCormick contributed to this report from Nairobi.</s>Displaced people in a camp in Bentiu, South Sudan, on April 22, 2014. AFP PHOTO

UN human rights experts on a fact-finding mission to South Sudan warned Wednesday of an escalation in ethnic violence in the war-torn country.

"Many expect intensified fighting now that the dry season is setting in," said Yasmin Sooka of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.

Sooka was speaking to the press in the capital Juba at the end of a 10-day visit during which the three-member team spoke with civilians in the battleground towns of Bentiu, Malakal and Wau, as well as government officials and members of civil society.

"There are unprecedented levels of violence and ethnic tension all over South Sudan," Sooka said.

"Any sense of national identity is crumbling and tribal or ethnic identity is taking over. I repeatedly heard of the desire for revenge," she added.

South Sudan's current conflict began nearly three years ago when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy and political rival, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup. Since then the world's newest nation has fractured along ethnic lines in a civil war characterised by atrocities.

Sooka said government and rebel armies were both forcibly recruiting soldiers — including children — and warned that "renewed recruitment is an indicator that all the parties are preparing for the next conflict".

The UN rights experts repeated calls for an arms embargo, sanctions, the deployment of another 4,000 peacekeepers and the establishment of a special war crimes court.

"We have credible information that the South Sudanese government is currently targeting civilians in Central Equatoria and preparing for largescale attacks in the coming days or weeks," Keith Harper, the US representative at the UN Human Rights Council, said in Geneva.

"In the last two weeks, the government has mobilised at least 4,000 militia from other areas of South Sudan and is staging these fighters in Equatoria to begin conducting attacks," Harper said.

Earlier this month the UN's Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, told the Security Council there was a risk of "outright ethnic war" and the "potential for genocide".

The UN rights experts are expected to publish a report of their findings in March.</s>Sooka said government and rebel armies were both forcibly recruiting soldiers — including children — and warned that "renewed recruitment is an indicator that all the parties are preparing for the next conflict".

Since then the world's newest nation has fractured along ethnic lines in a civil war characterised by atrocities.

South Sudan's current conflict began nearly three years ago when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy and political rival, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup.

UN human rights experts on a fact-finding mission to South Sudan warned Wednesday of an escalation in ethnic violence in the war-torn country.

"Many expect intensified fighting now that the dry season is setting in," said Yasmin Sooka of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.

Sooka was speaking to the press in the capital Juba at the end of a 10-day visit during which the three member team spoke with civilians in the battleground towns of Bentiu, Malakal and Wau, as well as government officials and members of civil society.

"There are unprecedented levels of violence and ethnic tension all over South Sudan," Sooka said.

"Any sense of national identity is crumbling and tribal or ethnic identity is taking over. I repeatedly heard of the desire for revenge," she added.

South Sudan's current conflict began nearly three years ago when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy and political rival, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup.

Since then the world's newest nation has fractured along ethnic lines in a civil war characterised by atrocities.

Sooka said government and rebel armies were both forcibly recruiting soldiers — including children — and warned that "renewed recruitment is an indicator that all the parties are preparing for the next conflict".

The UN rights experts repeated calls for an arms embargo, sanctions, the deployment of another 4,000 peacekeepers and the establishment of a special war crimes court.

"We have credible information that the South Sudanese government is currently targeting civilians in Central Equatoria and preparing for large scale attacks in the coming days or weeks," Keith Harper, the US representative at the UN Human Rights Council, said in Geneva.

"In the last two weeks, the government has mobilised at least 4,000 militia from other areas of South Sudan and is staging these fighters in Equatoria to begin conducting attacks," Harper said.

Earlier this month the UN's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, told the Security Council there was a risk of "outright ethnic war" and the "potential for genocide".

The UN rights experts are expected to publish a report of their findings in March.</s>GENEVA (AP) — The United States has “credible information” that South Sudan’s government is targeting civilians in Central Equatoria state and preparing for “large-scale” attacks within days and weeks, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.

U.S. ambassador to the Human Rights Council Keith Harper told a special session of the U.N. body in Geneva that the South Sudanese government has mobilized at least 4,000 militia members and “is staging these fighters in Equatoria to begin conducting attacks” — a claim quickly denied by his counterpart from the African country.

“The United States is alarmed by recent reports about the situation in South Sudan,” Harper said, noting that over 1,900 homes in Central Equatoria had been destroyed over the last two months. “We have credible information that the South Sudanese government is currently targeting civilians in Central Equatoria and … preparing for large-scale attacks in the coming days and weeks.”

Speaking to The Associated Press after the session of the 47-member council, Harper said that U.S. diplomats were “principally working it through New York because that is where we can do an arms ban, arms embargo, individualized multi-lateral sanctions. So all of these things are on the table.”

On her Twitter account, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power late Tuesday called the troop increase a “huge red flag,” saying that the Security Council “must halt” the flow of arms to South Sudan.

During Wednesday’s session in Geneva, South Sudan ambassador Kuol Alor Kuol Arop didn’t directly reject Harper’s claims about a new, upcoming offensive, but responded that the country’s vice president and other top officials are part of the transitional government. Speaking to the AP, Arop denied any build-up of forces or plans for an offensive.

Adama Dieng, the U.N. secretary-general’s adviser on the prevention of genocide, has said that Central Equatoria and the Yei region are at risk of genocide. A recent AP investigation uncovered evidence of ethnic targeting and frequent attacks on civilians by South Sudan’s military.

According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 300,000 South Sudanese have fled into Uganda since fighting erupted in the capital, Juba, in July.

On Monday, South Sudan’s government blocked a team of international monitors from traveling to Central Equatoria to investigate violations of the country’s peace deal.</s>NAIROBI, Kenya — For years, South Sudan has posed one of the world's most confounding diplomatic problems. The newly independent nation is at war with itself, and has been largely unresponsive to foreign efforts to broker a lasting peace deal.

Add one more international imbroglio to the mix.

After fighting broke out in South Sudan's capital in July, about 600 South Sudanese opposition fighters fled the country, eventually landing in the arms of the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping mission. The United Nations has been giving food and shelter to the men – many of them high-level combatants – at special camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC.

Initially, the United Nations' mission in the DRC decided the fighters would either starve or be killed if they weren't helped. Some had arrived in the country wounded or seriously malnourished. Officials expected that they wouldn't stay for long after recovering, perhaps returning to their country after a peace deal was salvaged.

Now, the United Nations faces a dilemma: what to do with the hundreds of fighters still in their care, who have refused to renounce war?

For now, the men are playing card games and volleyball in the U.N. camps and sleeping in U.N. tents. But residents of nearby villages have complained about the hundreds of foreign fighters suddenly living near them. The residents have held protests pleading for their removal. The DRC government has also demanded their repatriation.

Since late 2013, with little interruption, South Sudan has been riven by fighting between two main groups, one led by former vice president Riek Machar and the other by President Salva Kiir. The fighting – which has taken on tribal overtones – has left more than 2.8 million South Sudanese people displaced and tens of thousands dead. Both sides have been accused of heinous war crimes.

Not long after the opposition fighters crossed into the DRC in August, hundreds of South Sudanese government troops poured over the border and briefly clashed with them before withdrawing, according to a recent report from the U.N. Panel of Experts on South Sudan. On another occasion, two MI-24 helicopters from the South Sudanese military flew over the border and attacked some of the opposition fighters. Kiir has accused the United Nations of taking sides in the conflict by housing opposition combatants.

Helping the fighters was a humanitarian responsibility, U.N. officials said at the time, but it came with a major question: What were the physical and reputational risks for the United Nations of housing a notorious fighting force?

For years, the DRC has been haunted by foreign fighting groups, like the Democratic Forces of the Liberation of Rwanda, which the United Nations has accused of "serious violations of international law." They are among a complex array of Congolese, Ugandan, Rwandan and Burundian rebel groups who still operate in the country, which is home to nearly 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers sent to quell the violence among various factions.

One of the biggest problems posed by the South Sudanese rebels is that they plan on eventually returning to battle. They gave up their weapons to the United Nations., but they have refused to "demobilize" – the process by which they would declare themselves noncombatants.

"They appear determined to return to South Sudan to resume fighting, if the opportunity arises," said Charles A. Bambara, a spokesman for the U.N. mission in the DRC.

The United Nations is awaiting solutions from the countries involved.

Bambara said that the government of the DRC must ensure that the opposition fighters in its territory "do not return to South Sudan to participate in the armed conflict in that country."

But Congolese officials have so far appeared eager to evict the South Sudanese fighters. According to Radio France International, the country's defense minister, Crispin Atama Tabe, wrote a letter to the United Nations in September saying that the country "cannot accept" armed groups with the "intention of undertaking armed actions."

If the United Nations simply sent the fighters back to South Sudan, they could easily be imprisoned or tortured. Several weeks ago, Kenya deported James Gatdet Dak, an opposition spokesman, back to South Sudan. The United Nations subsequently released a statement saying it was "deeply concerned" about his well being. Dak has not been heard from since he was taken into government custody in Juba, the capital.

Bambara said the opposition fighters, if they were expelled from the DRC to South Sudan, "would be exposed to a real risk of summary execution, disappearance, torture or other serious violations of their human rights." At this point in the conflict, South Sudanese government forces appear to be considerably stronger than the opposition.

Adama Dieng, the U.N. special envoy for the prevention of genocide, said while visiting South Sudan on Nov. 11 that there was a "strong risk of violence escalating along ethnic lines, with the potential for genocide."

Machar was among the opposition fighters who traveled to the DRC, but he has since left to receive medical treatment in South Africa.

The United Nations has been working with the African Union "to identify a third country that could temporarily accommodate these elements," according to a letter from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the U.N. Security Council in October. But so far, no option has emerged.

That letter ended with a particularly dire analysis.

The U.N. mission in the DRC, Ban wrote, "is faced with a situation in which it is no longer in a position to accommodate or care for the [South Sudanese opposition] personnel, though no clear arrangements have yet been put in place, or are under consideration, which would ensure that they are handled in a manner that is consistent with international law."
A United Nations human rights commission in South Sudan claims a "steady process of ethnic cleansing is underway" in the war-torn nation.