The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights calls for the prompt cessation of indiscriminate attacks and threats against civilians and the escalating hostilities in the Republic of South Sudan
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission), through the Country Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Republic of South Sudan, Honourable Commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso, follows with concern recent developments related to the escalating security situation in South Sudan.
The Commission has learned with utmost alarm from reports reaching it that the escalating hostilities in Jonglei State of South Sudan between South Sudan People Defense Forces (SSPDF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO) and affiliated militias involving the use of indiscriminate attacks, including aerial bombardments that is endangering the security, the physical safety and the life of civilians, including women and children.
The Commission also deplores that the escalating hostilities involving large-scale mobilisation by armed militias and opposition forces in South Sudan, accompanied by inflammatory and ethnically charged rhetoric, have put South Sudan on a footing for the occurrence of mass atrocities and the relapse of the country back to full-scale civil war.
The African Commission strongly condemns reports of public statements inciting violence against civilians based on ethnicity and the perpetration of acts of violence that directly infringe on various human and peoples’ rights enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter) including forced displacement of civilian populations, destruction and looting of homes, markets and medical facilities, and obstruction of humanitarian access, which has resulted in civilians fleeing their homes and evacuating the counties in Jonglei.
The Commission recalls that under the African Charter, the state bears primary responsibility not only for acts of violations directly attributable to it, but also those acts of violations that result from its failure to protect citizens from the violent acts of non-state actors.
Furthermore, the Commission reiterates that attacks, threats, and incitement directed at civilians constitute grave violations of the fundamental rights enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter), particularly the right to life (Article 4), the right to dignity (Article 5), the right to personal liberty (Article 6), freedom of movement and residence (Article 12), the right to property (Article 14), the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Article 16) and the right to peace and security (Article 23).
In view of the foregoing, the African Commission calls upon South Sudan, as a state party to the African Charter, to take the following actions:
1. Ensure unconditional and immediate cessation of all the attacks and incitement of violence against civilians, including those targeting particular members of particular ethnic groups.
2. Publicly and unequivocally condemn all forms of incitement to violence, including ethnicised rhetoric by political and military actors, and take steps to prevent such conduct from recurring.
3. Ensure cessation of the escalating hostilities pushing South Sudan back to full-scale war and resulting in large-scale loss of lives and insecurity, displacement and socio-economic and societal destruction.
4. Urgently launch political dialogue with the SPLM-IO, including by cooperating with the African Union and the United Nations efforts to facilitate the return of the parties to the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) as a necessary measure for averting further violations of the African Charter, including the right to peace and security.
5. Guarantee unimpeded humanitarian access and support victims and their families, including through enabling the provision of medical, psychosocial, and material assistance for anyone affected.
6. Recommit without delay to the full and faithful implementation of the R-ARCSS, as repeatedly urged by the Commission in its previous concluding observations.
7. Allow the launch of an independent investigation within the framework of the R-ARCSS with the support of the AU and the UN on the violations of the R-ARCSS and the related conditions that precipitated the eruption and further escalation of the current hostilities.
The African Commission will continue to monitor the situation closely and avails itself to engage with the Government of South Sudan to assist and ensure that effective steps are taken to implement the foregoing and related measures to end violence against civilians and the attendant human rights violations.
Honourable Commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso, PhD
Country Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Republic of South Sudan
Done this 28th day of January 2026
