![]() Lack of access to resources in a context marked by sharp economic downturns and severe food insecurity has only exacerbated the vulnerability of women and girls where their inability to meet basic needs undermines their physical security, reinforcing the lack of authority over their own lives. ![]() While any attention to the country’s little-known atrocities is certainly welcome, as myself and others have already pointed out, the incident in Bentiu is far from the only instance of widespread sexual violence in the country since the start of South Sudan’s war over five years ago on 15 December 2013.Ĭritically, this kind of sexual violence does not happen in a vacuum it is rooted in everyday structural violence, and connected to the local political economy of bridewealth in the country, which treats women and girls as property, undermining their sexual agency and control over their own bodies. Photo credit: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Īt the end of November 2018 an estimated 150 women and girls were raped while walking to access a food distribution centre near Bentiu in the former Unity State in South Sudan, sparking international outrage. ![]() A woman mixes cassava flour in the back of an old UN vehicle in Payam. Far from existing in a vacuum, in South Sudan sexual violence is rooted in everyday structural violence, connected to the local political economy of bridewealth. Encouraging women and girl’s economic independence without considering the realities of underlying power structures will perpetuate their subordinate position.
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