The “shocking scale” of violence against women and girls in South Sudan is double the global average, a new study says.

The first comprehensive report on the “magnitude, frequency and brutality” of such violence in South Sudan’s conflict zones was released by the International Rescue Committee and George Washington University’s Global Women’s Institute.

As the world’s youngest nation approaches its fifth year of civil war, rape has often been used as a weapon by both government and opposition forces.

The civil war has killed more than 50,000 people, forced more than two million to flee abroad and plunged parts of the country into famine.

Up to 65 percent of women and girls interviewed for the new study said they had experienced sexual or physical violence. More than half of the women reported domestic abuse. Women and girls living in the United Nations-run civilian protection site in the capital, Juba, were most vulnerable to sexual violence.

Chuol Madol said she was gang-raped by government soldiers in October when she left the camp in Juba to look for firewood.

“Women were crying but we were so deep in the bush that no one could help us,” the 27-year-old said. “We’re not fighting anyone. We’re only here, trying to live.”

The new report cites a “breakdown in the rule of law” in South Sudan, meaning perpetrators go unpunished.

“As we have seen in South Sudan time and again since this war started, armed forces on all sides engage in sexual violence with impunity. It is used both opportunistically and as a weapon of war to intimidate, punish and abuse civilians,” said Jehanne Henry, senior Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Civil society organisations are calling on South Sudan’s government and UN agencies to create a “concrete strategy” for combatting the violence.

The government did not respond to a request for comment on the new study. Earlier this year, acting spokesman Choul Laam condemned reports of rampant sexual assault, telling the Associated Press the government was “moving swiftly to protect civilians from such behaviour by educating all armed forces and holding the perpetrators accountable”.

South Sudan situation Show all 7 1 /7 South Sudan situation South Sudan situation A woman waits to be registered prior to a food distribution carried out by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Thonyor, Leer state, South Sudan, Reuters South Sudan situation Women and children wait to be registered prior to a food distribution carried out by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Thonyor, Leer state, South Sudan Reuters South Sudan situation Two women hold their acute malnourished children Getty Images South Sudan situation Two women hold their acute malnourished children, in a stabilisation centre in Ganyiel, Panyijiar county, in South Sudan Getty Images South Sudan situation A woman holds her malnourished child in a stabilisation center in Ganyiel, Panyijiar county, in South Sudan Getty Images South Sudan situation Men unload boxes of nutritional supplements from an helicopter prior to a humanitarian food distribution carried out by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Reuters South Sudan situation A woman collects grains left on the ground after a food distribution Getty Images

“Perpetrators of violence against women and girls in South Sudanese communities are multiplying regularly,” said Edmund Yakani, executive director for the Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation, a local advocacy group.

In light of the new UK-funded study, the British Government has increased support aimed at helping 750,000 survivors in South Sudan and around the world to help “stop the cycles of violence”.