A UN report says militias allied to the South Sudanese Army have been allowed to rape women in lieu of wages during fighting against rebel forces.

Investigators found that 1,300 women were raped last year in the oil-rich Unity State alone, it added.

In a separate report, Amnesty International released a new report on South Sudan, detailing the alleged horrific acts of the country’s armed forces.

The rights group said that it had evidence that South Sudan forces deliberately suffocated more than 60 men and boys in a shipping container.

They then dumped the bodies in a field in leer town, Unity State.

One woman said that she had watched her 15-year-old daughter being raped by 10 soldiers after her husband was killed.

The UN said that government fighters abducted and gang-raped girls, and cut civilians to pieces. It also accused opposition fighters of committing human rights abuses.

Researchers claimed they had found the remains of skeletons from the killings, which were said to have taken place last October.

Thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in South Sudan since 2013.