Dozens of SSPDF soldiers were convicted to different jail terms for crimes against civilians in Yei County, Central Equatoria State. |2020. | File photo.

The SSPDF Military Justice said it has convicted 136 officers who committed various offenses, including sexual violence against women and girls in the last four years.

Brigadier General Riek Biem, the Deputy Director of the Military Justice Department said the convicts serving different terms were tried through mobile courts in different locations.

General Biem, who has not named the inmates, said they include officers, non-commissioned officers and privates.

“In the course of the last four years since we start in 2020, about 136 suspects charged with serious offenses including sexual violence against both adults and minor were convicted, 136 in total,” he said.

The military official spoke during a roundtable discussion on creating a conducive security environment for the remaining transitional processes at the civil society conference in Juba on Thursday.

“We prosecuted almost about 174. But when we scrutinize them, these were the people convicted. As we talk, these number is in the national prison.

General Biem said the disgraced officers have also been stripped of their ranks and dismissed from the army.

“They are also stripped of whatever rank each one has, dismissed from the service and when they come out from the prison next time, they will not come to us, they will join the civil population.”

The inmates include 24 soldiers sentenced to 14 years in jail over human rights abuse in October 2020, and further 15 jailed in June 2022 for murder and rape.

According to General Riek Biem, the SSPDF Military Justice has a total of 94 judge advocates, 9 of whom are females.

He said the number is insufficient in trying cases, describing it a major challenge for Military Justice.

“We are about 94 judges, and if you can see the total of the forces we have in South Sudan and the number of judges, you will see already there is a challenge of insufficient number of judge advocates to cover the gap,” he said.

Some 65% of women and girls in South Sudan have experienced sexual or other physical violence, the United Nations children’s agency said in 2019, as cited by Associated Press.

Between July and September 2020, the U.N. reported an 88% increase in conflict-related sexual violence from the previous quarter even as overall violence dropped.

In March 2022, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan published a report that describes a hellish existence for women and girls.

It cited widespread rape allegedly being perpetrated by all armed groups across the country, often as part of military tactics.

It added that government and military leaders are responsible, either due to their failure to prevent these acts, or for their failure to punish those involve.

“It is outrageous and completely unacceptable that women’s bodies are systematically used on this scale as the spoils of war,” declared Yasmin Sooka, chair of the UN Commission.

“Urgent and demonstrable action by authorities is long overdue, and South Sudanese men must stop regarding the female body as ‘territory’ to be owned, controlled and exploited.”