SRSG Nicholas Haysom on Wednesday's press conference says South Sudan has to grapple with multiple challenges, including the effects of the Sudanese situation, without losing sight of the critical need to address its own internal security challenges - Photo Credit: UNMISS

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan says it has documented 22 cases of extrajudicial killings in Warrap and Lakes states between January and May 2023 – an allegation strongly refuted by Kuajok.

In its latest quarterly Human Rights Brief released on Friday, UNMISS said violence against civilians persists across the country.

UNMISS alleged that there were 22 documented cases of extra-judicial executions between January and May 2023.

The UN Mission said out of these, 14 persons including one female were executed in Warrap State and eight in Lakes State by South Sudan security apparatus personnel.

The peacekeeping body could not state clearly which security apparatus was responsible for the summary execution.

But Warrap State Minister of Information William Wol Mayom dismisses the allegation – maintaining that the state has a functional judiciary.

“The leadership of his excellency Brigadier Manhiem Bol Malek dismiss the allegations that have been labeled against the government of Warrap State there is no kind of Extra-Judicial killing in Warrap State,” Wol told Eye Radio.

“This is actually not true, and I have been saying this several times that Warrap State is governed through the legal process. We have a judiciary system that is independent, and the judiciary is practicing its roles without any interference from the executive.”

Minister Wol said the reported incidents are fake and that the government has no knowledge about it.

“What has actually been exercised by the government is only to apprehend the culprits to go under investigation, and the judiciary takes up the process so there is any such a kind so that report is politically motivated, and we condemn it in the strongest terms possible”

Several phone calls to Lakes State Information Minister William Koji went an answered.

Meanwhile, the UN said it has recorded 920 incidents of violence against civilians, during which 405 civilians were killed, 235 injured, and 266 abducted, between January and March 2023.

It also said 14 people were subjected to conflict-related sexual violence during that period.

According to the mission, inter-communal violence by community-based militias and civil-defense groups constituted the primary source of violence affecting civilians.

It further said much of the violence was generated and documented in Jonglei State and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA), in the conflict which erupted at the beginning of the year.

Other conflict hot spots are Warrap, Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, and Lakes states.

“I condemn these incidents which occur without any due process” says UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan Nicholas Haysom, according to the statement.

“The Government has previously denounced this practice and, following our engagements, the Minister of Justice has agreed to investigate these allegations,” he added.

The Mission urges the Government to speedily investigate the cases of extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations.