A/HRC/31/49 areas outside the UNMISS protection-of-civilians site, and on the roads and pathways from the protection-of-civilians site to Malakal.6 31. According to credible sources, on 25 May 2015, during fighting in Malakal Town, 24 women from the Shilluk community sought refuge in the SPLA barracks at Ayat Company. SPLA detained several of the women who were repeatedly raped. 32. Cases of rape were also reported when women left the UNMISS protection-ofcivilians site to pursue various livelihood activities, such as gathering food and firewood. 7 One witness described how she and other Shilluk women had encountered five SPLA soldiers on their way from the UNMISS protection-of-civilians site in Malakal to the riverside. The soldiers called upon them to stop, but they ran back towards the site. One of them only returned to the UNMISS protection-of-civilians site after two days, and informed the witness that she had been abducted and raped by the soldiers. 33. One of the most notable effects of the sexual and gender-based violence continuing in and around Malakal is the fear and paralysis it has instilled in the community. It was evident during meetings with the assessment team that women were in a state of permanent insecurity and felt compelled to take great risks. One displaced explained noted that “women are suffering a lot. When we go to town, we risk falling into the hands of soldiers, being raped and abandoned. Women who try to resist risk being killed.” Because of this fear, she no longer ventured into town to collect firewood and food, preferring to stay closer to the UNMISS protection-of-civilians site. She pointed out that SPLA soldiers generally followed women’s movements with a view to assaulting them sexually. 34. The assessment team also documented reports of abductions of women in Unity, Upper Nile and Central Equatoria States. 35. In Unity State, several women reported having been abducted or witnessed other women being abducted. In some reported incidents, women were taken to help SPLA and affiliated militias to carry looted items, and were released once they had arrived at the destination, usually Leer or Koch town. 36. Several women also spoke of having been taken as “wives” by soldiers and kept in barracks, or “where the soldiers sleep”. The assessment team received first-hand accounts from at least three women who were abducted, kept forcefully by soldiers and raped repeatedly. One woman explained to the assessment team how she and 27 other women had been abducted from a village in Leer during an attack by SPLA in October. She reported having been made to carry looted items to Koch, where she and the other women were then “shared” among the soldiers as “wives”. She was forced to live with her abductor for a week and to carry out chores that included cooking, cleaning and fetching firewood. 37. Between April and December 2015, in Upper Nile, protection actors documented numerous allegations of abductions of women from areas outside the UNMISS protectionof-civilians site and on the roads and pathways from the protection-of-civilians site to Malakal.8 A woman told the assessment team that, at the end of November 2015, a close relative had left the UNMISS protection-of-civilians site to collect firewood in the morning and did not return in the evening. The following day, the body of a woman was found in an abandoned house, in Malakal town. Neighbours in the protection-of-civilians site identified her missing relative, who was found wearing only her underwear on a bed, her neck twisted. On 11 October, in Central Equatoria State, a 21-year-old woman and her two small children were abducted in the vicinity of a village where SPLA had recently set up 6 7 8 South Sudan Protection Cluster, South Sudan Protection Trends, No. 6, July – September 2015. Ibid. Ibid. 7