Fighting between Government forces and armed groups in Jonglei has displaced thousands of civilians since January. The UN and its partners have had access to most of the 1.5 million people in the area, but were unable until this week to reach a couple of the villages from which people fled and were hiding in the bush.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said that expanded access for aid agencies in Pibor County has allowed for the assessment of the needs of up to 25,000 civilians who have fled recent fighting.

“I am particularly concerned that some children show signs of measles, a fatal disease in such conditions,” he said in a statement.

UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have a joint team on the ground and are providing medical assistance, water purification tablets and plastic sheeting.

“Civilians stranded in the bush need not only peace and security, but also freedom of movement so that they can access services,” he added. “Basic services can be provided by humanitarian organizations, assuming that all parties ensure unhindered and continuous access, as well as an environment which is safe and welcoming for non-governmental organizations and UN agencies.”

Lanzer had called the access gained earlier this week a “significant breakthrough.” With the rainy season started and expected to last through December, the basic concerns of the families in the area are staying dry and warm, food and medical needs.

South Sudan, which marked its second independence anniversary earlier this month, has been plagued by sporadic ethnic violence as well as a border conflict with Sudan.

The abuses by the South Sudan Army (known as the SPLA) and the South Sudan Police Service Auxiliary Force (SSPS) have taken place during Operation Restore Peace, instigated by the government in March 2012.

“Far from bringing security to the region, the SPLA and the police auxiliary forces have committed shocking human rights violations and the authorities are doing very little to stop the abuse,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Africa Director.

“Authorities have accepted that individuals are guilty of these violations and claim that it is not illustrative of the behaviour of the SPLA as a whole, but this cannot be used to justify these violations or the failure to deal with them properly.”

Amnesty International researchers, who travelled to some of the most remote villages in Pibor County in the south-east of Jonglei State, interviewed scores of people who described acts of torture and abuse committed against civilians, including children as young as 18 months old, in addition to having their property looted and crops destroyed.

Researchers spoke to a woman whose brother was shot dead by someone believed to be an auxiliary police officer in front of their home and to two men who were ambushed and shot by soldiers. None of the men who were shot had been armed.

Amnesty International also documented credible reports of rape and attempted rape by SPLA forces. One elderly woman explained how a soldier raped her daughter while other soldiers were beating her and her granddaughter with large sticks. Her granddaughter was left unconscious.

Civilians told Amnesty International that in many villages, soldiers had returned to the area two or three times to disarm the population. In Thangajon village, for example, soldiers came twice in July and once in August.

K.E, a mother of four explained: “I was at home with five other women and our children. They asked us to give guns and we said we didn’t have guns and we were beaten with sticks. They took us to pools behind our homes. One soldier stepped on my neck to push my head down and one stepped on my back so I couldn’t jump out. My brother’s wife was unconscious.”

Amnesty International is calling on the South Sudanese authorities to carry out independent and impartial investigations into allegations of attacks against civilians by members of the armed forces and to monitor effectively the civilian disarmament process.

Amnesty International is aware of five soldiers detained in Pibor County for allegedly committing rape and murder. The lack of a judge advocate and civil prosecutor and judge in Pibor means that investigations and trials have not proceeded.

Gaughran said: “Security forces committing these horrific acts of violence have to be fully held to account.”

Amnesty International also calls upon the United Nations Mission in South Sudan to step up its efforts to protect civilians, including by deploying peacekeepers in areas where there is significant potential for violations by the SPLA.

On 23 August, armed fighters believed to be loyal to a renegade leader named David Yau Yau attacked South Sudanese troops stationed in the Nanaam area of Pibor County in Jonglei.

According to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), 24 soldiers were killed in the fighting while numerous others are still reported missing or injured.

“I strongly condemn this attack and reiterate UNMISS’ call on all communities, institutions and actors engaged in the Jonglei peace process and related security operations to stay the course in making further progress and in consolidating the gains made to date,” the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for South Sudan and head of UNMISS, Hilde F. Johnson, said in a news release.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the UN peacekeeping mission provided support to the South Sudanese armed forces, assisting in the evacuation of the wounded and providing aerial transportation to local government officials travelling to visit communities in the area.

Jonglei state, South Sudan’s biggest, has seen recurrent bouts of violence since the country obtained independence last year.

Large-scale cattle raids between the Murle and Lou Nuer communities, for instance, have posed an ongoing threat to the area’s peace and security with violence causing numerous casualties, including many dead, wounded, abducted and displaced. It is estimated that clashes between the two groups have affected some 120,000 people in Jonglei since December 2011.

In its press release, UNMISS noted that the recent attack may have been deliberately planned to undermine progress made in improving the regional security environment, as well as in establishing inter-ethnic reconciliation.

The peacekeeping operation added that it would continue to work with the Government of South Sudan and other national and local authorities towards the achievement of “durable peace, security and stability in Jonglei.”