Reuters: A South Sudanese military court on Thursday sentenced 10 soldiers to prison for the rape of foreign aid workers and the murder of a journalist in an assault on a hotel in Juba in 2016, and ordered the government to pay compensation to the victims.
The attack, one of the worst on aid workers in South Sudan’s civil war, took place on July 11, 2016, as President Salva Kiir’s troops won a three-day battle in the capital over opposition forces loyal to ex-Vice President Riek Machar.
Witness accounts said that armed men attacked the Terrain Hotel for several hours. Victims phoned U.N. peacekeepers stationed a mile away and begged for help, but none came, the witnesses said.
The military head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, Kenyan Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki, was fired over the incident.
The court case was widely seen as a test of will by the government of President Salva Kiir to bring accountability in the military that has long drawn accusations of widespread rights violations and a culture of impunity.
“The military court found that the accused here are guilty for their direct responsibility in committing crimes,” said the head of the military court, Brigadier General Neath Almaz Juma, when reading the verdict.
Ten soldiers were handed sentences ranging from seven years to life imprisonment. Eleven were on trial but one was set free due to the lack of charges against him.
Describing the incident, the manager of the Terrain Hotel, Mike Woodward, told the court that “between 50 and 100” soldiers arrived in the hotel in the afternoon of July 11 and began looting an hour later.
“Five women working with humanitarian organizations were then raped. John Gatluak was shot at 6:15 p.m.,” Woodward said, referring to the South Sudanese journalist who was killed. An American was also shot in the leg, he said.
An American, an Italian and a Dutch were among the rape victims. The court said the government must pay $4,000 to each of them.