By Tereza Jeremiah Chuei
A 16-year-old girl was reportedly raped in Gurei suburb of Luri Payam in the outskirts of Juba city, police said.
According to the deputy national police spokesperson Brig. Gen. James Dak Karlo, the incident happened at around 10:30pm in the evening of Wednesday 31st August 2022, by an unidentified perpetrator.
He stated that the victim is being treated in Juba Teaching Hospital and will be attended to, anytime from now by a councilor, as her health is seen to have normalized.
The deputy police spokesperson revealed that the case of the victim was opened in Kuburi Aboba police station and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is closely following up the case.
“The intelligence group (CID) is making a survey and we have a tip from the community about the perpetrator, and majorly ‘the description about him’ and there is a trace because we have identified (his) check point and we will be able to apprehend him soon,” Dak assured.
He also appealed to the communities to help the police trace the whereabouts of the perpetrator.
Brig. Gen. Dak however called on the Government to establish safe house for the victims of rape cases, citing that it’s not safe for them (victims) to stay in the hospital even when their health has stabilized.
He stressed that the victim is supposed to be referred to the safe house after treatment for further safety, which is currently lacking in the country.
“Our challenge is we don’t have a safe house, so we are crying to the government to establish a facility called safe house, so that the victims of rape are no longer kept in the hospital, they would be transferred there (safe house) the moment their health normalized,” he urged.
Dak hinted that although some donors had promised to build the safe house, the promise is yet to yield fruits.
On the same notes, Samuel Legge, the Doctor in charge of Gender Based Violence (GBV) center in Juba Teaching Hospital had earlier on voiced out concerns on the absence of the safe house.
Dr. Legge underscored the importance of the safe house which he said is meant to provide shelters to the victims or survivors, who are afraid and felt their lives are in danger.
However, a year back, the Minister of Gender and Social Welfare Ayaa Benjamin Warille had pushed the Parliament to pass a bill to fight GBV.
In late 2020, the South Sudan government in partnership with the UN agency set up a special court to handle SGBV cases.
According to reports, around 300 cases of rape, Physical Violence and other related domestic and GBV issues were reported in 2021.