South Sudan Needs Decisive African Union Action on Escalating Abuses

Coordinated airstrikes on civilian settlements in South Sudan’s Upper Nile and Jonglei states have killed dozens of noncombatants and displaced thousands since the start of 2025, according to forensic interviews, satellite telemetry, and survivor testimony compiled by Human Rights Watch. These bombardments mark a sharp escalation within a broader campaign of atrocities that has expanded to include systematic sexual violence, the forced conscription of minors, and the targeted executions of village elders who resist militia mobilization. Investigators have traced these operations to a deliberately fragmented security architecture. Within this system, government-aligned units and regional armed groups exploit jurisdictional gray zones to extract resources, while senior political figures maintain plausible deniability for the violence unfolding on the ground.

The violence has evolved methodically over the past year, shifting from isolated clashes along contested grazing corridors to calculated assaults on populated centers. Between January and October, field researchers documented at least fourteen separate incidents in which fixed-wing aircraft dropped unguided munitions on villages that lacked strategic military installations, leaving behind cratered clinics and charred market squares. Concurrently, verified testimonies detail how combatants have deployed sexual violence as a deliberate mechanism of territorial control, while sweeping recruitment drives have forcibly pulled boys and men into frontline battalions. Throughout this period, command-and-control structures have remained intentionally opaque, allowing mid-level commanders to operate with near-autonomy while systematically insulating political leadership from direct operational accountability.