Genderizing War: The Impact of the Civil War on the Women of Upper Nile State in South Sudan

This study examines the nexus between the impact of the civil war and the discovery of oil, on the women and girls of Melut County in Upper Nile State in South Sudan. The study assesses the atrocities committed by the combatants, especially those that qualify as acts of genocide and the correlations to oil wealth. The recurrent armed conflict in the Melut Basin has turned the whole country against itself, without external aggression. Of a particular interest to this study is the violation of human rights specifically meted on women and girls of Melut County, to understand why they become target of violent acts, such as rape, which is being used as a weapon of war and why this strategy has been adopted by the various Militia and the State Military. This study reveals the motive behind the grotesque strategy of rape as a weapon of war and its origin. It relied on qualitative research and secondary data was collected from peer reviewed journals and books. The data type comprises of challenges faced by women in Melut County, which is not quantified, hence can only be qualified by describing the roles the various actors play and the nature and adequacy of support rendered to redress insecurity, especially amongst women and girls. The merit for adopting a qualitative research in this study was to acquire in-depth knowledge of the current situation and ascertain the progress or failures of previous intervention with the aim of understanding the nature of support required to end these atrocities against women and girls, and other human rights violations that demean humanity, which would also end the conflict emanating from the contradiction between doctrine and policy and which should supersede the other in the interest of the State development. This study provides very important strategies which will go a long way to help curb these and other emerging security threats arising from various communities within South Sudan.