UN Report: South Sudan Has Healed Little Since Civil War

FILE - In this Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 file photo, a South Sudanese government soldier chants in celebration after government forces on Friday retook from rebel forces the provincial capital of Bentiu, in Unity State, South Sudan. AP
FILE - In this Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 file photo, a South Sudanese government soldier chants in celebration after government forces on Friday retook from rebel forces the provincial capital of Bentiu, in Unity State, South Sudan. AP
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UN Report: South Sudan Has Healed Little Since Civil War

FILE - In this Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 file photo, a South Sudanese government soldier chants in celebration after government forces on Friday retook from rebel forces the provincial capital of Bentiu, in Unity State, South Sudan. AP
FILE - In this Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 file photo, a South Sudanese government soldier chants in celebration after government forces on Friday retook from rebel forces the provincial capital of Bentiu, in Unity State, South Sudan. AP

South Sudan has made no concrete steps toward national healing more than two years after the end of a civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and sent more than 2 million people fleeing, a new United Nations report said.

Now some government forces are fueling new fighting by arming community militias with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns to attack neighboring communities, according to the report by the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, presented this week to the UN Human Rights Council.

It's a bleak look at what the authors call “the government’s manifest lack of political will to end impunity for serious crimes.”

The “staggering scale” of sexual violence, as well as corruption and the use of starvation as a weapon of conflict, remain dangers in a country ranked as one of the worst in the world to live. More than half the population is hungry, and COVID-19 is spreading through a nation whose health system was largely shattered, it said, The Associated Press reported.

Instead of peacebuilding and accountability, “political violence is spiraling out of control at the inter-communal level but driven by national actors who arm ethnic militias and paramilitary groups with military-grade weapons using the ostensible cover of cattle-raiding, which in turn leads to reprisals and revenge killings – all under the cover and control of parties to the conflict in South Sudan,” the report noted.

For his part, government spokesman Michael Makuei rejected the report, asking, “Why should we mobilize militia against certain mentalities at the time when we have already signed a peace deal and we are all working for it?”

He asserted of the authors: “All these are reports written by people who are seated comfortably in Juba hotels. They write such reports to guarantee their continuity" in their posts.

In February, the country's rival leaders formed a coalition government that many observers prayed would last this time around. But further steps toward peace have fallen behind, and the country remains awash in weapons despite a UN arms embargo that was extended in May for another year.

The new report calls for the government to allocate at least 1% of the country’s oil revenues to reparations to citizens harmed during the five-year civil war. It also urges the government to establish a Commission on Truth, Reconciliation and Healing as well as a long-delayed hybrid court to address crimes including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

According to AP, South Sudan has seen very little peace. It won its independence from Sudan in 2011 after years of fighting and erupted in conflict two years later as supporters of President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar began fighting.

Machar is again Kiir's vice president under the new government.

Despite the formal end of the war, vicious fighting continues in parts of the country including Jonglei state, where hundreds of people have been killed this year. The survivors now face flooding that has displaced more than a half-million people, further imperiling food security as prices rise amid the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on travel.

In September, the UN secretary-general warned that South Sudan is one of four countries that face the risk of famine.



Ukraine Says It Shot Down Russian Fighter Jet from Sea Drone for First Time

A serviceman of the 43rd Hetman Taras Triasylo Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stands near an Archer self-propelled howitzer as it is fired towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a position in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine April 24, 2025. (Reuters)
A serviceman of the 43rd Hetman Taras Triasylo Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stands near an Archer self-propelled howitzer as it is fired towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a position in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine April 24, 2025. (Reuters)
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Ukraine Says It Shot Down Russian Fighter Jet from Sea Drone for First Time

A serviceman of the 43rd Hetman Taras Triasylo Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stands near an Archer self-propelled howitzer as it is fired towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a position in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine April 24, 2025. (Reuters)
A serviceman of the 43rd Hetman Taras Triasylo Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stands near an Archer self-propelled howitzer as it is fired towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a position in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine April 24, 2025. (Reuters)

Ukraine destroyed a Russian Su-30 fighter jet using a missile fired from a seaborne drone, Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency announced on Saturday, in what it said was the world's first downing of a combat plane by a maritime drone.

Its statement on social media said the fighter had been shot down by a military intelligence unit called Group 13 on Friday over waters near Novorossiisk, a major Russian port city on the Black Sea.

Outmanned and outgunned by its larger, wealthier Russian adversary, Ukraine has turned to drone warfare in the air and at sea as a way to fight back throughout more than three years of full-scale war.

Ukraine's seaborne drones, which are much cheaper and smaller than conventional ships, have wrought havoc on Russia's Black Sea fleet.

Ukraine has previously said it shot down a Russian military helicopter in December 2024 using a missile fired from the same type of seaborne drone.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on the Ukrainian claim, but an authoritative Russian blogger believed to be close to the ministry said the jet had been shot down.

"Yesterday towards evening, a Su-30 naval aviation fighter jet was shot down by the Ukrainian side 50 kilometers west of Novorossiisk. This was done from an uncrewed boat with an R-73 SAM (surface-to-air missile)," the blogger, who goes by the name Rybar, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"The pilots ejected and were picked up by civilian sailors. Both are alive, and to hell with the plane."

The mayor of Novorossiisk declared a state of emergency on Saturday after local authorities said a Ukrainian drone attack had damaged a grain terminal and several residential buildings, injuring five people.