US Ambassador to United Nations Samantha Power Courtesy - of - online.wsj.com

U.S Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, is urging the warring parties to end sexual violence in South Sudan.

Early this week, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, said 74 percent of the rape victims in South Sudan are below the age of 18.

She made the statement in a press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York, following her first mission to South Sudan to assess the situation on sexual violence.

Meanwhile, the U.S Ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, urged the leader of the SPLM-SPLA in Opposition, Dr. Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir to do something to prevent sexual violence in South Sudan.

On her twitter account, Ambassador Power urged Dr. Machar to immediately sign a Communique on preventing sexual violence.

She said both Machar and President Kiir should do more to end the scourge of sexual violence in South Sudan.

Responding to the statement by Ambassador Power, the Press Secretary in the Office of the President, Ateny Wek Ateny, said` the government gives full attention to the statement. 

” We take any report on sexual violence in South Sudan seriously as government, and we investigate it because as government we have a mechanism of investigating such cases. If anyone is found to be guilty of committing sexual violence, they will be brought to books.”  He said.

Wek said the government has a mechanism of investigating cases of sexual violence in the country, and those found guilty of this crime will be punished.