South Sudan expels UN rights official for writing false reports

South Sudan has expelled a UN human rights investigator, accusing her of writing false reports, a move the UN mission said broke the country's legal obligations to the United Nations.

UN sources, who named the officer as Sandra Beidas, said Sunday's expulsion may have been related to an August report accusing the army of torturing, raping, killing and abducting civilians.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July last year under a 2005 peace deal that ended a decades-long civil war in which some two million people died. Sporadic conflict has continued in disputed border areas.

Human rights groups accuse the new nation, which depends heavily on Western donors, of allowing abuses by its security forces, mostly composed of poorly trained former guerrilla and militia fighters.

A government spokesman said the officer had been "writing reports which have no truth in them". He did not elaborate.

Hilde Johnson, head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), called the expulsion a "breach of the legal obligations of the government of the Republic of South Sudan under the charter of the United Nations".