Gunman walks with his weapon in Akobo town, one of the counties in Jonglei state where one of the revenge-related attacks took place - CREDIT | AP Photo/Sam Mednick | Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018

Nearly 400 civilians were killed across South Sudan between April and June 2023, said the UN Mission in South Sudan in a report which also shows Warrap State was the worst affected.

The peacekeeping mission also revealed in a statement on Tuesday, September 26, that 166 people were abducted and 29 subjected to conflict-related sexual violence across the country.

According to UNMISS, the killings, abductions, and sexual abuses were documented in 222 incidents.

UNMISS indicates that the figure marks a 14 percent increase in violent incidents from 194 in the first quarter of the year, to 222 reported from April to June this year.

It however acknowledges a five percent decrease in civilians harms from 920 to 871 in the previous year.

While the number of civilians killed decreased by two percent from 405 to 395, the number of people injured increased by 20 percent from 235 to 281.

Meanwhile, the number of abductions decreased from 266 to 166, while the number of victims subjected to Conflict-Related Sexual Violence from 14 to 29.

UNMISS said most of the victims representing 87 percent of the incidents perpetrated by community-based militias or inter-communal violence.

The brief said geographically, Warrap State was the most affected by the chronic violence accounting for 34 percent of all civilian victims, followed by Jonglei, Upper Nile, Eastern Equatoria, and Central Equatoria States.

“Ordinary civilians in South Sudan pay dearly for these acts of violence. It is critical to strengthen justice and accountability systems for such crimes” said Nicholas Haysom, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in South Sudan.

UNMISS added that it documented at least 20 individuals affected by undue restrictions of fundamental freedoms, including through continuous censorship, harassment, arbitrary arrests, and detention by security forces, which negatively impacted civic and political space.

The UN mission says will continue to provide technical assistance and advocacy for a conducive environment for the exercise of civic and political freedoms as a prerequisite for free, fair, and credible elections in 2024.