State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2014 - South Sudan

South Sudan erupted into civil conflict at the end of 2013 after a year in which hate speech and ethnically targeted violence continued to escalate against a backdrop of increasing political tensions. Around 355,000 civilians had been internally displaced by January 2014, according to the Mission for South Sudan (UNMISS), with an additional 78,000 having fled across the border into Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan. Minorities and indigenous peoples often are most vulnerable during periods of conflict and regularly make up higher proportions of displaced people. Many Sudanese Nuba communities, for example, were already residing in refugee camps in South Sudan after fleeing from South Kordofan in Sudan. Since the conflict in South Sudan erupted in late 2013, the situation of Nuba communities has become even more desperate as they are caught in the crossfire between South Sudan factions and also are targeted by government forces from Khartoum.

Many groups, including UNMISS, warned that the prevalence of hate speech and inter-ethnic conflict over the past year indicated that South Sudan is at high risk of mass atrocities. Indeed, accusations of incitement to ethnic violence have been a regular feature of the conflict, leading the African Union to state that it would 'take appropriate measures, including targeted sanctions, against all those who incite violence, including along ethnic lines'.

South Sudan's domestic law prohibits hate speech and incitement to violence, such as the publication of information that could incite public disorder or cause offence to persons of a certain ethnic group or tribe, with potential penalties of 1 to 20 years' imprisonment. However, despite UNMISS recommendations that '[h]ate speech and incitement to violence on the grounds of ethnic origin should also be publicly condemned and prosecuted', hate speech has continued to be widely practised. A particularly volatile area is Jonglei State, where inter-ethnic conflict has been a feature of life since South Sudan's independence. A recent UNMISS report highlighted the fact that '[w]idespread stereotyping, the creation and use of "enemy" images, [and] hate speech amounting to incitement to violence have also exacerbated the conflicts. This has included messaging about wiping out communities or removing them from their lands.' UNMISS noted that hate speech had particularly targeted the Murle in Jonglei. In 2013, Murle communities were subjected to revenge attacks by Lou Nuer militias, after Murle youth had been accused of attacks on Lou Nuer communities several months earlier. The continuing actions of the Yau Yau militia, associated with the Murle community, led to a government crackdown and brutal disarmament campaign in Jonglei in 2013. The army occupied the town of Boma in Jonglei, leading to significant concerns among minority groups that they would be forced off their land and subject to other human rights abuses. At the close of 2013, control of Jonglei's regional capital Bor was in dispute, and thousands of civilians were sheltering in the UN compound in the city.