Justice Ajonye Perpetua, acting South Sudan Law Society's Secretary General, during a community dialogue on community security and gender-sensitive GBV case management in Juba on Feb.11, 2022 - Credit: South Sudan Law Society

A human rights activist have raised concern over an increasing number of human trafficking cases in the country.

Justice Perpetua Ajonye says over 5,500 human trafficking cases have been registered across the country in 2021, with 824 cases recorded in Juba alone.

Ajonye says this figure represents those reported including over 1,000 girls below the age of 18.

She revealed that there cases of human trafficking still being handle at Malakia police station.

Ajonye urges citizens to always be on their guard and protect the children who are targets of the traffickers.

“There is a high level of human trafficking which is happening, last year alone we have lost over 5,500 people and in Juba alone we lost 824. These are the ones which are reported including over 1,000 girls below 18 years,” Justice Ajonye said.

“In Malakia police station we have some cases which we are now handling about what happened involving NOAH vehicles.”

Justice Ajonye call on Female journalists during the launched of the Media Gender Policy on Tuesday to report on human trafficking.

“As journalists, we need to be alert and we need to protect the children because children are disappearing. Connecting it to the information from Kenya over the weekend, how many South Sudanese children we got across in Kenya who were taken from here. So let us be alert,” she said.

For her part, the Minister of Defense, Angelina Ateny said government need to pay attention to issues of human trafficking.

She said the 2021 figure disclosed by Justice Ajonye may even be triple if all cases were reported.

“The reported figure is 5500 and the real figure to me can be at least three times what is being reported here. The majority of our people are in areas where they are unable to report a missing person within their community,” said Angelina.

“We ask the question, what is the state doing in order to combat this? Our security agencies, what is it that they need to look out for. We want to know what the army can do because the army is also deployed in these places.

“Who are these traffickers and what do they look like? I felt that this is an area that we need to really give attention to.”

Human trafficking is the illegal trading, buying and selling of human for exploitative purposes which includes force labor, marriage, slavery, organ donation or pushing them into prostitution.

Last year the United States has maintained that South Sudan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.

This they say is because the government did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any traffickers for the ninth consecutive year.

Human traffickers are said to have continued to exploit domestic and foreign victims in South Sudan, as traffickers exploit victims from South Sudan abroad.

South Sudanese women and girls, particularly those from rural areas or who are internally displaced, are also said to be vulnerable to domestic servitude throughout the country.

According to the Department of State, the government of South Sudan has not made significant efforts to address trafficking in persons even considering the documented impact of the coronavirus pandemic.