President Salva Kiir - June 22, 2022. Photo credit: PPU

President Salva Kiir has ordered investigations into extrajudicial killings, rape and destruction of civilian property in Mayom County and southern Unity State.

In a republican order issued on Thursday, Kiir formed an ad hoc committee headed by Sarafino Simon Mizan – Senior Legal Counsel at the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

Mizan’s committee is tasked with finding the root cause of an enduring insecurity in the oil-rich state.

Other members of the committee are Major General Henry Lam Juach, Major General Abun Stephen Thiongkol, Judge Advocate Aguer Chol Aguer and Major Sebit Mahmud.

President Kiir’s decision to appoint the investigation team comes amid a damning UN report, implicating the national army SSPDF, allied militia and elements of the SPLA-IO on the atrocities in the southern part of the state.

UN indicated this week, that the armed actors were involved in the killing of 170 people, and raping of 131 women and girls in Leer, Mayendit and Koch counties between February and May this year.

Army Spokesperson General Lul Ruai reputed the report of SSPDF involvement in the killing and raping of civilians.

The newly appointed investigation committee will also look into a wave of insecurities Mayom County, North of the state.

Last month, four officers allied to renegade leader of South Sudan People’s Movement/ Army (SSPM/A), were summarily executed days after they were deported from Sudan.

The executions on 7 August, were allegedly in response to a 22 July attack by the SSPM/A on Mayom County headquarters, which killed the commissioner along with a dozen others.

Commissioner Chuol Gatluak Manime, brother to Kiir’s Security Advisor Tut Gatluak Manime was killed during an early morning attack on his headquarters.

Two days into the attack which haunted the state and received condemnations, a gruesome ambush on a military convoy along the Warrap – Unity State border also left 19 people dead.

The insurgencies by Buay’s opposition group prompted the SSPDF to declare “full-scale operation to crackdown on the forces of Stephen Buay Rolnyang.”

Army Spokesperson Major General Lul Ruai Koang told the media in July that SSPDF raided positions of Buay’s opposition group in Mayom County, killing 65 of their fighters.

But President Salva Kiir has made several appeals to the holdout armed groups to lay down their weapons and “return home.”