Sexual violence rampant in South Sudan's Unity area, says UN

JUBA, South Sudan – The United Nations says that brutal sexual violence persists with "pervasive impunity" and a level of "premeditation" in South Sudan's northern region.

According to a report issued Friday by the U.N. Human Rights Office and the U.N. Mission in South Sudan, at least 134 women and girls were raped, including some as young as eight, between September and December last year. The report said that an additional 41 others suffered different forms of sexual and physical violence.

Even though South Sudan signed a fragile peace deal on September 12 to end the country's five-year civil war, which killed almost 400,000 people, the U.N. warns that endemic conflict-related sexual violence continues in northern Unity state.