South Sudan: Abusive 'Anti-Gang' Crackdown

Mass Arbitrary Arrests; Ill-Treatment; Rape; Forced Conscription, Including Boys

South Sudan's security forces, since late June 2025, have conducted sweeping arbitrary arrests of boys, young men, and women under the guise of a crackdown on criminals.
Many were held for up to a week without charge and often released only after their families paid bribes. Young women were sexually assaulted, some young men and boys were forcibly conscripted, and some have not been seen since.
The authorities should end arbitrary arrests and forced recruitment and investigate allegations of abuse including rape. South Sudan's partners should ensure that any support they provide to the security forces is conditioned on respect for human rights.

(Nairobi) - South Sudan's security forces have since late June 2025 conducted sweeping arbitrary arrests of boys and young men and women under the guise of a crackdown on criminals in the country's capital, Juba, Human Rights Watch said today. In the course of these sweeps, security forces have subjected detained boys and young men to torture and ill-treatment, extortion, and forced conscription, and in at least one raid, police officers beat and raped women.

"Invoking the need to crack down against gangs in South Sudan's capital, security forces have arbitrarily detained, extorted, and forcibly conscripted dozens of boys and young men and raped young women," said Nyagoah Tut Pur, South Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should end these abuses, release those unlawfully detained and forcibly conscripted, and hold security forces to account."

Between August 7 and November 23, Human Rights Watch remotely interviewed 37 people, including victims, 3 of them children, and relatives of people affected by the government sweeps in Juba. Human Rights Watch also spoke to 5 civil society activists, , United Nations and child protection experts.

On December 10, Human Rights Watch wrote to the police and military spokespersons to seek their response to the preliminary findings, but neither has responded.

Over the past decade, youth violence and gangs have surged in South Sudan, driven by poverty, unemployment, conflict, and displacement. In mid-June 2025, reports emerged of a video on social media showing the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in Juba by alleged gang members.

Following reports of the rape and the video, the National Police Service, the South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), and the National Security Service began joint operations in the residential neighborhoods of Juba. The initial crackdown started in late June and was formally announced as a 7-day initiative at the start of July, but witnesses reported that arrests were ongoing as of the end of 2025.

By early July, the authorities announced that they had arrested at least 600 alleged gang members. In October, police said they had arrested 32 alleged criminals and confiscated weapons and that criminal proceedings would be initiated. However, Human Rights Watch has not been able to confirm any ongoing legal proceedings against individuals accused of crimes related to involvement in gangs other than in the gang rape case in which 13 were arrested and 7 charged.

Human Rights Watch found that the crackdown has resulted in arbitrary arrests and detentions, followed by beatings and other abuses in police and military facilities, as well as the forced conscription of dozens of boys and men.

People interviewed said that the security forces, both in uniform and civilian clothes and armed with guns or sticks, targeted boys and young men who were gathered or walking in groups and going about their daily life.

A 24-year-old man described his arrest in late June in the Gumbo neighborhood: "One hit me on the head saying I am a criminal.... They [also] beat us when making us sit down. With sticks, with their hands, anything. They were rough."

Women who were detained in late June, when security forces raided a large party of young people at a hotel, told Human Rights Watch that they and other women were raped at the Buluk police station by multiple police officers.

Detainees have been kept in crowded police and military facilities. Some said that they were barely given food or water. A 17-year-old held at the Giyada military barracks for four days in late June said: "I saw boys below the age of 17 urinating in empty water bottles then drinking it."

People interviewed who had been detained said they were held for periods ranging from a few hours to as long as a week, until their relatives paid money or offered goods to have them released. A 48-year-old mother whose two sons were detained at Mapao police station in mid-July said: "The [police officers] said it is a rule to pay 50,000 SSP [about US$10] and [give them] a chair for each child, so we complied."

Some, however, were not released. Human Rights Watch spoke to four men and two boys who were detained in Juba and then sent with dozens of others to military camps in Upper Nile state, where fighting has escalated since early 2025. Three were forced into combat roles, and the others made to work for the soldiers.

A 23- year-old man, forcefully recruited in late August, was sent to fight twice before escaping. "The commanders would say 'we have fought many wars now it's your turn, after all you are criminals and gangs, this is what you want to do.' Each time we were put up front."

At least four family members interviewed said that their relatives have been missing since they were seen being detained by authorities, and that the authorities have refused to provide information on their whereabouts, including if they have been forcibly conscripted. Authorities are obligated to provide information confirming if a person has been detained or otherwise in their custody and information on the whereabouts and/or fate of every person taken into custody, including if they have been transferred to military custody as a conscript. Failure to do so may render the arbitrary detention an enforced disappearance, strictly prohibited under international law.

The police spokesperson rejected claims of forced conscription, telling the media in August that the operation targeted criminals and that some detainees had been moved outside of Juba because of overcrowding. Human Rights Watch could not independently confirm whether people had been moved due to overcrowding.

South Sudan's domestic law and international human rights law prohibit the recruitment or use of children by armed forces or groups. South Sudan has also outlawed the forced conscription of adults in most circumstances. Multiple international and regional human rights treaties which South Sudan has ratified prohibit all unlawful or arbitrary arrests, detentions, or imprisonments, as well as torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, including rape and sexual violence. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that detention of children be used only as a measure of last resort.

The authorities should ensure that law enforcement operations respect human rights, including by ceasing arbitrary arrests and forced recruitments and investigating allegations of ill-treatment, torture, and other abuses, including rape. They should also ensure access to trauma-informed and gender-sensitive medical and psychosocial support for victims of security forces abuses, including rape survivors. The government should reveal the situation and whereabouts of all those missing, including those forced into military service, and grant independent monitors access to military barracks in Upper Nile, Human Rights Watch said.

South Sudan's partners should ensure that any support they provide to the police and security forces is conditioned on respect for human rights, accountability for abuses, and measures to prevent child recruitment.

"Instead of responding to real concerns around criminality, the security forces have used this 'law enforcement' campaign to commit serious abuses against marginalized children and young people," Pur said. "The authorities should ensure credible, rights-respecting responses to address crime, support youth programs, and stop further marginalizing South Sudan's youth."

For additional details and accounts of those detained, please see below.

Background and Context

Petty crime and violent turf wars are a serious problem in Juba. Social workers and two gang members told Human Rights Watch that young people join gangs seeking protection, a sense of belonging, or income. Social workers said that, in some cases, parents reported their children to local security forces, saying that they are unable to manage "bad" behavior.

In 2020-2021, Juba's mayor, and then in 2023, national authorities, initiated operations against young people suspected of gang affiliation. The authorities have often arrested people and accused them of criminal behavior for no other reason than that they had dreadlocks, plaited, or dyed hair.

The crackdown in 2025 following the gang rape of the 16-year-old girl took place against the backdrop of a deteriorating political and security situation, especially in Upper Nile state. The government and its allied militias have been fighting the armed Nuer youth known as the White Army and the Sudan People's Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO) under suspended First Vice President Riek Machar since March.

In mid-2025, the SSPDF, announced a recruitment drive for 4,000 soldiers, pressuring states to meet quotas because of low voluntary enlistment and high numbers of desertions from Upper Nile state, while many troops have gone unpaid.

South Sudan has a history of recruitment and use of children in military forces. Since war first broke out in 2013, government, armed opposition groups, and allied militias have recruited and used children in their forces. In 2018, the government and opposition groups signed a comprehensive Action Plan to "end and prevent all grave violations against children," which expired on October 15, 2025, having not been fully implemented.

Arbitrary Arrests and Detentions

Since June, the police, the National Security Service, and military forces have arrested hundreds of children and young people without warrants or evidence that they have been linked to criminal behavior.

Human Rights Watch spoke to 18 adults and 3 children arrested in various neighborhoods of Juba, alone or in groups. They included students, motorbike drivers, casual laborers, bystanders, and others going about their lives. Human Rights Watch spoke to two self-identified gang members, but neither had been detained nor charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

Security forces arrested a 24-year-old student on July 19 along with three of his friends who were all at a neighbor's house in the Lologo neighborhood, playing computer games. Following those arrests, the security forces moved through other neighborhoods of Juba between 6 and 9 p.m., arresting three boys listening to the radio outside their compound and 14 young people, including two in their 20s who were asleep at home. They also attempted to arrest three boys eating supper with their father, who intervened.

A 33-year-old man said he saw security forces violently detain a group of young people sitting under a tree in early July in Mia Saba: "A military truck arrived, then immediately they started arresting youths who were seated in one place," he said. "I saw them running in different directions and the soldiers chasing them, beating others and throwing them into the vehicle."

Those arrested were taken to police facilities in the capital including Buluk, Gumbo, Mapao, Lologo, and Gudele, to a military facility in Giyada and a military outpost in Gumbo.

A 23-year-old man said he was going to watch a football match in Lemon-Gaba neighborhood on the evening of late August when two police officers arrested him. "They came toward me and shouted, 'You - where are you going?' Before I could finish telling them, they handcuffed me." He said he was detained at Buluk police station with 53 others for 5 days.

Parents struggled to locate children who had been detained. A woman whose 16-year-old son was arrested in late June still had no news of his whereabouts from police authorities when interviewed in August, even though others arrested with him had since been released. A civil society activist said in August that they received reports from 15 families searching for missing relatives.

In some instances, police demanded that parents provide student documents or solicit letters from local officials to establish that their children were not criminals.

People interviewed who had been released said they were held for periods of a few hours up to seven days. None had been charged or presented before a court before their release.

Victims and their families said the crackdown prompted fear and trauma. A community leader in Lologo said that people were afraid to lodge complaints about the abuses: "Everyone fears for his or her life."

Torture and Ill-Treatment

Those detained and witnesses said that security forces beat, kicked, whipped, or otherwise mistreated people during their arrest and in custody.

A 21-year-old woman said that she saw security forces beat one man during his arrest in late June: "They beat him to the extreme and his eye started bleeding, something burst, now he cannot see."

A 37-year-old man was arrested along with his two younger brothers at their home in Gumbo in late July. He said police officers tied them with ropes and beat them with sticks as they moved through neighborhoods picking up more people.

A 16-year-old boy arrested in early August in Lologo while grocery shopping said that a soldier brutally slapped him and that other military officers beat his two sisters when they tried to intervene.

Two men detained in early November said that police at Gurei station lashed them and five other detainees 100 times with a rubber roll used in grinding mills and shaved their hair. One of the men, a 34-year-old motorbike driver, said: "I was crying like a child and rolling on the ground. I could not sit for the first day. Even sleeping was hard."

He said that officers had beaten a 30-year-old detainee during the night, accusing him of insulting the officers: "More than three police officers were beating him, he was crying saying he wasn't the one who insulted the officers. They were kicking him using their legs and hitting him with their hands. They left him out there lying on the ground for a long time.... Then they pulled him by the leg and dragged him back into the cell."

Police officers then contacted the 30-year-old detainee's family because he was vomiting and urinating blood. A family member who confirmed the incident said that due to his severe injuries and safety concerns, they took him outside of the country after his release.

Harsh Detention Conditions

Detainees faced harsh conditions in both police and military facilities.

As dozens were brought in, detention sites became overcrowded. Detainees had inadequate access to food, clean water, sanitation, and medical care.

A 17-year-old student held at Giyada military barracks for four days in late June said: "Giyada was very full. I didn't eat food, but I got a small amount of water. I saw some boys urinating in empty water bottles and then drink it."

A 24-year-old student who was detained alongside 17 others in mid-July at Bome police sector in an unfinished mud house for one night said: "It was dirty ... and with urine smell of those who might have been detained there previously ... full of mosquitoes, frogs jumping on us throughout the night.... A human being is not supposed to sleep [there]."

Sexual Violence

At the onset of the crackdown in late June, security forces raided a large party of young people at a hotel, rounding up hundreds of partygoers. Human Rights Watch could not determine who had organized the party.

A woman, 19, who was at the party, said: "They came inside and stopped the function and started arresting us. Both male and female. [We] were accused of being gangs ... [though] we do not identify as gang [members]. When the soldiers and police came in, they started beating and kicking everyone."

Human Rights Watch spoke to four young women arrested during the raid and taken to the Buluk police station. Two of them said that multiple police officers raped them.

An 18-year-old woman said that two police officers raped her behind a building at the police station:

The first one said if I am quiet, he will not beat me. I was trying to speak to him, I tried to scream then the second policeman came, saying why are you taking so long, then he wanted to beat me, then he went back and left me with the first police [officer]. Then he came back again and raped me after the first one had raped me.

She said that the police had also raped or gang-raped five of her friends detained in the same incident. She said the police threatened her afterward: "They said ... we [are] the police, we have big cameras, we shall see you accusing us and we shall go and pick you [up] wherever you are."

Another woman, 21, said: "I tried to talk to him and told him I had [surgery] done five months ago ... he refused. When I was crying, shouting for help, then two other officers came, not to rescue me, but to rape me as well."

Survivors of sexual violence in South Sudan often face stigma, lack of support, and fear of reprisals. A 19-year-old woman arrested in the same incident said she knew eight girls and young women who had been raped by police after the raid and that survivors felt discouraged about getting post-rape services as the news of the incidents spread within her neighborhood and people said the victims "deserve to be punished."

Bribery and Extortion

Most detainees and their relatives had to pay for their release either in cash, goods, or both.

The mother of the two sons, ages 17 and 24, who were arrested on July 19 went to the Mapao police station the day after the arrest. The police said she would have to pay for their release:

The boys were looking dirty because they slept on a bare floor of a muddied house.... I gave the police their school documents, but they said I could only free them with a fine worth 100,000 SSP (about US$20) for both and two new chairs. I said my sons have committed no crimes, they are students, 'why do I have to pay a fine.' They said it is a rule ... and so we complied.

A 37-year-old man said two of his brothers detained at Mapao had to pay 50,000 SSP (about US$10) and a new chair each.

A 17-year-old boy arrested in late June along with seven others at Gudele roundabout while walking home from a party said his uncle had to pay 550,000 SSP (about US$110) to secure his release after he was held for four days in the Giyada military barracks.

One mother who paid a total of 300,000 SSP (about US$60) to the police to have her two sons released said she could not afford to pay their school fees as a result.

Forced Conscriptions of Children and Adults

Human Rights Watch spoke to four men and two boys who said they had been forcibly conscripted and nine family members whose children were or are believed to have been forcibly conscripted.

The conscripts were initially detained in both military and police facilities, then taken by the military to Juba International Airport. They were put on cargo or commercial flights to Malakal and then driven to Nasir and other conflict areas.

A 23-year-old man said he was arrested on August 28 and held for five days at Buluk police station, then flown to Nasir along with 80 others:

From Buluk police station to [Juba] airport, we were taken in a truck that carries sand. All 80 of us were put in a cargo plane to Malakal. At the airport they said: "We are all South Sudanese, we are one nation; you are the soldiers as of today. You are going to Nasir and you will fight the enemies of South Sudan. Do not dream of escaping from there."

He reported being made to fight twice before escaping in late September.

A 20-year-old man said he was taken to Upper Nile with 75 others in late June and that by early July there were 517 people, including children, at his camp who had been forcefully recruited from Juba. He received two months of training in Gal Achel barracks and was then sent to fight in Nasir, in Ulang, and near the Ethiopian border. He escaped in October and said he was haunted by the memories of what he witnessed: "I have a lot of nightmares about my dead colleagues ... at times my mind still feels like I am on the front lines."

Three other forced conscripts said their military training was brief, ranging from two weeks to a month, and very basic, consisting of how to hold and shoot guns and march, before being given military uniforms and weapons and sent to fight. They also spoke of harsh conditions including inadequate food and medicine, discrimination, mistreatment, and verbal abuse by regular soldiers.

The 23-year-old man said he was sent to fight twice in Nasir: "[The] majority on the front line were new recruits. The commander would put all of us first mixed with a few SSPDF soldiers." From his group of eighty recruits from Juba, he witnessed seven being killed, while another four were injured and taken to Malakal for treatment. He also said that since he fled Nasir, he has lived in fear and had not left his house.

A 17-year-old student arrested in late June said military officers tried to recruit him but instead released him and approximately 20 other children from the Giyada military barracks.

Human Rights Watch interviewed two children who said they had been forcibly conscripted and required to work for the soldiers.

A 17-year-old fruit seller arrested by police in late June and detained at Giyada with 200 others said that he and approximately 74 others were flown on a commercial plane to Malakal and then taken to Gal Achel barracks. "We were not given any responsibilities during the day. We could go fishing, that is it. In the morning, they would divide us, some go fetch firewood, some build houses for the soldiers."

The forced conscripts described very difficult escapes from the military camps. The 23-year-old said that he tried to escape Gal Achel three times before succeeding. He said that he and others who were caught were whipped and punished. At least two youth who escaped from Nasir said they missed registering for their final high school exams and would have to retake the school year.

In early August, Machar's opposition group released a video of 17 teenagers it said escaped from military bases after being taken from Juba in the crackdown. Media reported in early December that an alleged 25 forced recruits, most of them children, had escaped from a government military camp in Upper Nile into opposition-held territory.

Human Rights Watch continues to receive reports of forced conscription. A 30-year-old woman said that her brother, age 22, who was due to take high school exams in December, was arrested on November 11 and called three days later from Nasir saying that the army took him there.

Security forces have on occasion refused to acknowledge the detentions or reveal the situations of those forcibly conscripted.

A 40-year-old woman said that her 16-year-old son disappeared after his arrest on July 2 and she heard he was taken to Upper Nile, "As a mother I would be interested to know what crime he committed that they would send him there. He is a child; he cannot fight."

A man told researchers that his 16-year-old son disappeared in late-June after his arrest:

The military arrested him at 6 p.m. on his way home.... We started searching for him the following day.... A week later, he called me with a phone of one of the senior officers in Nasir. I have not heard from him since and the phone he used is not going through.

He said he had yet to receive news on his son.

Relatives of another 19-year-old arrested on July 2 in Lologo and of a 21-year-old arrested in Atlabara on July 14 said they were still searching and believe the two may have been sent to Nasir.

Read the original article on HRW.

South Sudan: Abusive 'Anti-Gang' Crackdown

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