A/HRC/40/CRP.1 IO as well as local government officials, with the assistance of border security and other officials in neighbouring Uganda.1109 The Commission has also received reports about the ongoing illegal teak harvesting and transportation by Government forces in war-affected areas in Wau State.1110 While this appears to have been happening to a much lesser degree than in the Equatorias, accounts indicated that SPLA soldiers had cut and transported teak logs belonging to private farmers in a small village between Ngoku and Wau, as part of an overall campaign of looting and pillage.1111 The crime of pillage is specifically included as a war crime in the Draft Statute of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan.1112 VII. Emblematic Incidents The Commission focused on reporting the facts and circumstances of recent incidents in Western Bahr el Ghazal, Central Equatoria, and Unity, and on clarifying responsibility for alleged gross violations of human rights and related crimes committed in those locations in 2018. The Commission chose to focus on incidents that are emblematic of crimes and violations committed since the Commission’s last report, and to clarify responsibility for these acts, as far as possible. These incidents build on the work of the Commission in its last mandate, which covered incidents in Western Bahr el Ghazal, Central and Eastern Equatoria, and Upper Nile States. The Commission has also undertaken investigative work into incidents that occurred in Juba in July 2016 and Malakal in 2014. A. Unity State, 2018 1. Background Unity State lies in the centre of the country and runs southward from the border with Sudan. The landscape of Unity State is criss-crossed with a number of waterways and has extensive areas of swampland in the south and east of the State, which make road travel very slow and difficult particularly during the rainy season. The main road in Unity State runs down the “dry-spine” of the state, from the Sudanese border to Adok Port on the White Nile River some 200 kilometres to the south. Enroute it passes through and connects major settlements of the state, including Rubkona, Bentiu, Thar Jath, Koch junction (from which Koch town lies some 20 kilometres to the west), Leer, and Adok. The White Nile at Adok Port is navigable by large vessels and thus constitutes a logistics hub of strategic value, particularly during the rainy season when impassable muddy roads increase its strategic value considerably. It is a Nuer dominated state. However, this statement belies its diversity and its divisions. The northern Abiemnom and Pariang Counties are dominated by the Padang Dinka who have consistently supported the Government throughout the conflict. The remainder of the state is Nuer dominated and includes Bul, Leek, Jikany, Jagai, Dok, Haak, and Nyuong Nuer groups. There is significant division among the Nuer groups in the state, most particularly with the Bul Nuer from Mayom County, dating back to the Sudanese civil war and carrying through the current conflict in which they supported the government in the conflict at various points. Importantly, Unity State, and Leer specifically, is the birthplace of former First Vice President Riek Machar, and the southern portion of the state has been an SPLA-IO stronghold since the conflict began in 2013. 1109 Africa Uncensored, The Profiteers, Part 3, retrieved at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKpJs6a563I. Confidential Meeting, Wau, 1 December 2018. 1111 Witness 967, ERN 101914-101919, para. 16. 1112 Article 4(f); and see also the Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 8(2)(e)(v). 1110 141