No one could hear me at scene of South Sudan mass rape: Victim

An 18-year-old woman recounts the day in early November when she and a friend were raped by four men, as she sits in a hospital in Nhialdu, South Sudan.

A young woman has recounted the day in early November when she and her friend were bound, dragged into a bush and raped by four gun-wielding men.

"My body hasn't been the same since," said the woman aged 18. The men attacked during an hours-long walk home to the South Sudan village of Nhialdiu.

"I was crying and screaming, but I was so far from the village that no one could hear me," she told the Associated Press.

Shock and outrage followed when the medical charity Doctors Without Borders announced that 125 women and girls had been raped, whipped and clubbed over 10 days last month in a dramatic spike in sexual violence.

"Horrific," the United Nations secretary general said. They were attacked as they made the long walk to a food distribution site in Bentiu, in Unity state.

Rape has been used widely as a weapon in South Sudan.

Despite the signing of a peace deal in September to end a five-year civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people, humanitarians have warned of higher rates of sexual assault as growing numbers of desperate people try to reach aid.

While some aid groups have quietly questioned whether all 125 people in the Doctors With Borders report were raped, they do not dispute that the problem has become grave.

The 18-year-old was not included in that report, and the real toll of sexual assault is not known.

Potholed road

Joining the UN patrol on Friday, the AP travelled the potholed road where the recent assaults took place. Shrouded by trees and elephant grass, some stretches provide cover for perpetrators to lurk. Several local women said the violence was escalating.

Nyalgwon Mol Moon said she was held at gunpoint last month while two men in civilian clothes, their faces covered, stole her clothes, her shoes and the milk she meant to sell at a market.

Standing beside the road, pointing to her borrowed, oversized sneakers, she said she now tries to take alternative routes on her weekly walks to Bentiu.

She has no other choice. Food in Nhialdiu and nearby villages is scarce. Most people could not cultivate last season because of fighting and too much rain. Many rely on monthly aid from the UN's World Food Programme.

That means a walk of almost 40km to Bentiu town. Unable to carry the heavy rations back in one trip, most women leave some behind with relatives and make several journeys throughout the month. Some said they make the 11-hour trek at least six times.

Closer to communities

Alarmed by the sexual assaults, the World Food Programme said it was prepared to bring distribution points closer to communities. The UN is now clearing the road from Bentiu to Nhialdiu of debris to make access easier.

No one has taken responsibility for the wave of assaults that the UN and African Union have condemned as "abhorrent" and "predatory."

The Government said it had deployed troops to areas in Unity state suspected of harbouring criminals. But the army in Nhialdiu is yet to detain anyone in connection to the assaults.