UNITED NATIONS (AP) " A senior U.N. official demanded accountability Monday for human rights violations committed by both sides in South Sudan's year-old conflict, saying "nobody is above the law."
Ivan Simonovic, the assistant secretary-general for human rights who just returned from South Sudan, told a press conference Monday that there is a broader acknowledgment of the need to break the cycle of impunity in the country.
But he said it won't be easy to improve the security and justice systems because 70 percent of the police force is illiterate and there are only 100 to 200 judges and a limited number of prosecutors.
Fighting broke out in the world's newest nation in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, accused former vice president Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, of trying to oust him in a coup. Their political dispute sparked ethnic attacks and fighting between government troops and rebels that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced over 2.1 million, and sent 500,000 fleeing to neighboring countries.
The warring factions have broken multiple agreements pledging a peaceful end to the conflict. In the most recent agreement, signed last week in neighboring Ethiopia, Kiir and Machar agreed to conclude a comprehensive peace deal before March 5.