South Sudan: Abuse Of Civilians In Western Equatoria, HRW Reports

Key Takeaways:

• South Sudan’s army, opposition forces, and their respective allied militias abused residents and caused much of the population to flee during fighting in 2025 in Nagero County, Western Equatoria.
• Civilians have returned to Nagero town and environs, but continue to live in fear, and the government has continued to limit aid access into Nagero County as in other conflict-affected areas in the country.
• The government should suspend commanders credibly implicated in abuses, guarantee safe, immediate humanitarian access throughout Nagero County, and facilitate the safe and voluntary return of those displaced. 

South Sudan’s army, opposition forces, and their respective allied militias abused civilians causing much of the population to flee during fighting in 2025 in Nagero County, Western Equatoria, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. The abuses include intentional killings of civilians, rape and torture, or other cruel treatment that constitute war crimes.

Western Equatoria state has been the site of repeated fighting between the army and opposition forces since 2018, with both parties carrying out serious abuses against civilians. From January to February 2025 and then again from September to November 2025, South Sudan’s army–South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF)–clashed with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA/IO) in Nagero County. During and after the clashes, government forces and allied fighters summarily executed at least eight civilians, including children; raped women; subjected other civilians, including detainees, to ill-treatment after accusing them of supporting the opposition; and burned and pillaged civilian property. 

“Government forces and allied militia carried out serious abuses against civilian communities in Nagero County, leaving many with nothing to return to,” said Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to investigate these violations promptly and effectively, and hold the leaders of these forces to account.”

Between March 2025 and June 2026, Human Rights Watch interviewed 31 survivors and witnesses from Nagero County, and 6 other sources. Some of those interviewed had been displaced to other areas, notably to Wau and Bazia (Western Bahr El Ghazal), and Juba, the country’s capital. Human Rights Watch also analyzed satellite imagery showing active fires or burn marks over several villages in Nagero County during January and February 2025. Civilians have returned to Nagero town and environs, but continue to live in fear, and the government has continued to limit aid access into Nagero County as in other conflict-affected areas. Human Rights Watch wrote to the army’s Chief of General staff on July 2, 2026, with preliminary research findings. The letter was reportedly forwarded onto the office of the Minister of Defence but received no response. 

In January 2025, the army seized an SPLA/IO controlled checkpoint at a strategic bridge known as Kubri-Bo, triggering clashes. Thousands of civilians fled. On February 7 and 8, as government forces moved from the Kubri-Bo checkpoint south to their main barracks, soldiers detained and killed two school students and burned civilian property in Nagero town and surrounding areas. 

On September 28, opposition forces attacked the Nagero town army barracks, prompting additional deployment of government forces. The UN reported that as of late September, at least 21,000 people had fled. In the weeks that followed, the army and allies summarily executed civilians, raped women, arbitrarily detained others, accusing them of supporting the opposition, and destroyed civilian property and infrastructure. 

On October 6, government soldiers went to a makeshift camp where people had fled, ordering them to return home, witnesses said. The soldiers then killed six civilians, including three boys, they rounded up at the camp. 

One man who witnessed the killings, said that 30 soldiers with “12 machine guns, RPGs and AK47s” took him, 4 other men and 4 boys away from the camp into the bush: “Soldiers tied us together two by two. At this time, one man escaped and soldiers ran and shot at him. The soldiers took a step back and took the big machine guns with bullets in a long chain. Then the soldier in charge gave the order to shoot.” The witness and one other survived. Government forces also pillaged and burned civilian property in and around the town and looted and damaged infrastructure, including health facilities and schools. 

On September 29, five government soldiers went to the house of a 19-year-old woman in Lindi neighborhood and set alight six of her family’s houses and a food store. “Our home was burned to ashes,” she said. “They burned our clothes, mattresses, plastic chairs. We were planning to open a restaurant…they burned food such as new groundnuts and cassava flour.”

Government forces also beat and otherwise ill-treated and detained civilians, including in military barracks, as they tried to flee or after they returned home, often accusing them of being rebel fighters or supporters. Civilians began returning home around mid-October 2025, in response to warnings from the military that people found in the bush would be considered SPLA/IO fighters or collaborators, as well as deteriorating conditions in displacement areas. 

Two women told Human Rights Watch that government soldiers raped them when they returned home. A 27-year-old woman said that government forces gang raped her and another woman near the Nagero army barracks on November 12. “Three of us were getting vegetables when we met five soldiers,” she said. “One woman threw her vegetables on the ground and ran away. The soldiers then warned the two of us, ‘If anyone runs, we will shoot them.’ They said, ‘Take off your clothes.’ Three soldiers raped us one after the other.” She said she had reported the attack to the neighborhood chief who then reported it to an army commander, but as far as she was aware, no action had been taken.

Multiple people interviewed and experts said that the army’s Division Six forces, along with special forces known as Mobile II, under commander James Nando, were reinforcements for locally posted army units throughout the violence. Media reports corroborated this. Nando had defected from the SPLA/IO in 2020, bringing a group of fighters with him, and has since been deployed alongside government forces. The US Treasury designated Nando on its sanction list in June 2023 for conflict-related sexual violence. 

Opposition forces carried out attacks in and near civilian areas during the violence. One man said he was abused by armed men whom he suspected to be SPLA/IO forces or their allies because of their language. The man, age 52, said three-armed men beat him, his wife, and his nephew on October 21 at their home. They handcuffed the two men, marched them off into the bush where, the witness said, “They untied my hands and one pointed a gun at me. I started crying and praying and one said, ‘Are you not a man, why are you afraid to die?’…He took a step back aimed for my chest, his colleague pushed the gun away, but he shot my leg.” 

In April 2026, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global group that includes UN agencies, humanitarian organizations, and other expert stakeholders, reported that insecurity in Nagero County still restricts people’s access to markets and farms. “How many times are we told to come home and that there will be no more fighting?” one person said. “But when people go back the SSPDF come and kill us and take our property. We run, leave our homes and when we get back, we find we have nothing to return to. How can we live like this and for how long?” 

The South Sudanese government should take immediate action to end all abuses against civilians by its armed forces including suspending commanders credibly implicated in abuses pending inquiry; conduct independent, impartial, effective investigations, and publicly report on their findings, Human Rights Watch said. The government should also guarantee safe, immediate humanitarian access throughout Nagero County and facilitate the safe and voluntary return of those displaced. 

The SPLA/IO should strictly observe its obligations under international humanitarian law, including to take all feasible precautions to avoid and in any event to minimize harm to civilians, such as during attacks on bases located near civilian areas that could foreseeably expose civilians to retaliation or crossfire. They should also immediately end all abuses against civilians, including those it accuses of links to the army. 

The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) should continue to deploy regular protection patrols and human rights monitoring missions to Nagero county. Donors should continue to press the government to allow safe and immediate access throughout conflict-affected areas, and increase assistance to Nagero County. 

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should consider undertaking a promotional or fact-finding engagement on the protection of civilians and accountability in South Sudan and report its findings to the AU Peace and Security Council. On its part, the Peace and Security Council should request regular reporting from the AU Commission and African Union Mission in South Sudan on civilian protection including in Western Equatoria, and publicly assess progress on the implementation of accountability mechanisms stipulated in the peace agreements, including the establishment of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan. 

“Government authorities should ensure that communities repeatedly displaced in Western Equatoria are able to return home safely,” Bader said. “They can start by removing and holding to account abusive commanders and forces, and guaranteeing safe, immediate aid access.”

Longstanding tensions in Western Equatoria, including Nagero county between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA/IO), have been compounded by tensions between the Balanda and Azande communities, widely perceived as aligned with the opposition and the government, respectively. Nagero County is predominantly inhabited by Balanda, while James Nando is Azande. 

After government armed forces on January 6, 2025, took Kubri-Bo–a strategic junction linking Nagero and Tambura, in the south, to Wau, toward the north, fighting broke out between the warring parties and intensified after President Salva Kiir dismissed Western Equatoria Governor Alfred Futuyo Karaba, an SPLM/IO nominee and ethnic Balanda, and replaced him with a government-aligned candidate. 

Government reinforcement soldiers came from Division 6 under General James Akech Adim and Nando’s forces stationed in Tambura and Maridi. This was reported as part of a broader government effort to clear SPLA/IO checkpoints along this road. 

Fighting reignited on September 28 when the SPLA/IO forces attacked military barracks in Nagero town, and again on October 6, with violence continuing through mid-October. 

While witnesses and survivors of abuses described below were not always able to identify their attackers, many attributed most abuses described in this report to government forces, because of their uniform or insignia, their language and vehicles, and which forces controlled the area at a given time.