South Sudanese government troops crushed fleeing civilians with tanks, then REVERSED over them to check they had killed them

• Shocking allegations follows interviews of people living in war-torn nation
• Traumatised civilians describe finding crushed bodies of their relatives
• 'After they hit them they would roll back over them', one woman told HRW 

By Elaine O'flynn For Mailonline^[1]

Published: 10:50 GMT, 22 July 2015 | Updated: 11:00 GMT, 22 July 2015

South Sudanese government troops crushed fleeing civilians with tanks, then reversed to check they had killed them, according to a human rights group. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused government soldiers of committing war crimes during the 19-month civil war, including carrying out public gang rapes and burning people alive.

The shocking allegations follow interviews with people living in South Sudan, which HRW says documents 'deliberate attacks on civilians'. 

War crimes: Human Rights Watch have accused South Sudanese government soliders, pictured patrolling in Bentiu town in June, of running over civilians with their tanks and reversing back over their bodies

Claims: The Sudanese government, headed by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir (centre), has not immediately responded to the report, which also claims its troops have carried out public gang rapes 

'They were running with the tanks after the people, and then after they hit them they would roll back over them, to confirm that they were dead,' one woman told the organisation.

The attacks were allegedly carried out by government troops and an allied militia from the Bul Nuer tribe.

Another witness, a 30-year-old woman, said troops in a tank hunted down her nephew.

'I saw him... he was crushed before he reached the river... we were running together, he ran in order to hide,' she told HRW.

Another described finding the squashed bodies of her two male relatives.

'Their bodies had been grinded,' she said, one of a string of testimonies documented in the HRW report, titled 'They Burned it All' and published yesterday.

It is based on interviews with 174 victims and witnesses from the northern battleground state of Unity.

Under attack: A woman told researchers for Human Rights Watch: 'They were running with the tanks after the people, and then after they hit them they would roll back over them, to confirm that they were dead'

Victim: Refugee Roda, 20, is one of almost 200 victims and witnesses who were interviewed for the report

Civilians fled into swamps to escape, but troops chased them down using amphibious armoured vehicles, raking hiding places with machine guns.

'They were hunting for cows and people,' one woman in the Koch area of Unity state said.

Other victims recount government soldiers castrating a man and a 15-year old boy, all part of a deliberate tactic to drive people out of the villages, HRW said.

The organisation documented murders 'of civilian women and men, including children and the elderly, some by hanging, others by shooting, or being burned alive.'

For this report, HRW documented 63 rape cases, but said they believed it was only a 'fraction' of the total.

'Cases include brutal gang rapes, rapes that took place publicly in front of others, and rapes in which the victims were threatened with murder before they were raped,' HRW said.

One woman said rape had become 'just a normal thing.'

Victim accounts of the attacks are horrific.

'One man put a gun to the back of my head and said 'Watch how we will rape your daughter,'' a victim told HRW.

'They made me sit on the floor two arm lengths from where they raped my daughter and they beat me with a stick. After they were finished, they raped my older daughter.'

Another woman said soldiers, 'only raped me once because they saw I had recently given birth.'

There was no immediate response from South Sudan's government, which has said it is also investigating a recent UN report on alleged atrocities by its troops, including reports that soldiers raped then burned girls alive.