JUBA: The president of South Sudan said on Monday that soldiers who rape civilians should be shot, trying to mollify citizens outraged by abuses by security forces and quell growing international anger over attacks.
South Sudan was plunged into a sporadic civil war in 2013 when Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy, an ethnic Nuer. Rights groups and UN monitors say soldiers have gang-raped women based on their ethnicity. A few rapes by rebels have also been reported.
The reports of sexual violence, committed with impunity, raised tensions between the South Sudanese government and Western donors, who bankroll most of the country’s health and education needs and largely fund a 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping force that costs around $1 billion dollars a year. “Those who are doing unlawful acts, raping women and girls, this is not the policy of the government ... the body of a woman cannot be taken by force,” Kiir said during a visit to the town of Yei.
The area around the former business hub, near the Ugandan border, saw fierce fighting last year and is now home to a large contingent of soldiers.
“I want the general chief of staff General Paul Malong and the defense minister to report to me from now on if anything like this (rape) happens. In such a case, we will shoot the person who did it,” Kiir said. In December, the United Nations warned that the simmering ethnic violence was at risk of exploding into genocide.
Rapist soldiers ‘should be shot’
Rapist soldiers ‘should be shot’
Hamas calls for sanctions against Israel over new West Bank moves
- Israel has approved a series of initiatives this month backed by far-right ministers
- Hamas hailed the condemnation as “a step in the right direction in confronting the occupation’s expansionist plans
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas on Tuesday called for sanctions against Israel, welcoming a joint condemnation by nearly 20 countries of new Israeli measures aimed at tightening control over the occupied West Bank.
Israel has approved a series of initiatives this month backed by far-right ministers, including launching a process to register land in the West Bank as “state property” and allowing Israelis to purchase land there directly.
Late on Monday, 18 countries including regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and European powers France and Spain, slammed Israel over the recent moves.
They “are part of a clear trajectory that aims to change the reality on the ground and to advance unacceptable de facto annexation,” the countries said.
“Such actions are a deliberate and direct attack on the viability of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution.”
Hamas hailed the condemnation as “a step in the right direction in confronting the occupation’s expansionist plans, which flagrantly violate international law and relevant UN resolutions.”
The group in a statement urged the countries involved “to impose deterrent sanctions and exert pressure on the fascist occupation government to halt its policies aimed at entrenching annexation, colonial settlement and forced displacement.”
It said the Israeli measures were part of ongoing “aggression” against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.
Israel’s current government has accelerated settlement expansion, approving a record 54 settlements in 2025, according to activists.
The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, is envisioned as the core of a future Palestinian state, but many on Israel’s religious right view it as part of Israel’s historic homeland.
