A/HRC/40/CRP.1 4. Violations and Alleged Crimes c) Killings of Civilians, Rapes and Other Forms of Sexual Violence, Arbitrary Detention, Cruel and Inhumane Treatment, Destruction of Civilian Property, and Pillage On the basis of the evidence collected by the Commission, it finds reasonable grounds to believe that SPLA soldiers fired on unarmed villagers taking no active part in the conflict during their ground offensive in the Wau Triangle from mid-June to November 2018 resulting in the killings of civilians, including women, children and the elderly. The evidence also provides reasonable grounds to believe that during this same offensive, SPLA soldiers beat, mistreated and arbitrarily detained civilians. Similarly, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the SPLA beat, mistreated and arbitrarily detained civilians in the course of its attack on Wadhalelo in June 2018. Furthermore, in the course of 2017, the SPLA soldiers killed at least three civilian men from Wadhalelo. Additionally, the evidence provides reasonable grounds to believe that SPLA soldiers raped and gang raped women and girls in Wadhalelo during attacks on the village in 2017 and 2018. SPLA soldiers deliberately burnt tukuls and villages in the Wau Triangle between June and November 2018 as well as in Wadhalelo between January and August 2017 and in June 2018. There is no information before the Commission to suggest that the destruction of private property carried out was due to military necessity. Additionally, the evidence collected by the Commission provides a consistent account of widespread looting and theft of private property by these same troops for their own use and sale in the markets. The Commission also finds reasonable grounds to believe that in the course of its occupation of the Wadhalelo area prior to 11 June 2018, the SPLA-IO also pillaged civilian property. These killings, rapes and sexual violence, arbitrary detention, cruel and inhuman treatment, looting and destruction of civilian property were committed by state agents and amount to serious violations of human rights law under the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan (2011), particularly the right to life and human dignity (Article 11), the rights of the child (Article 17), freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment (Article 18), and the right to property (Article 28). They also amount to violations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, including in particular the right to life and the integrity of the person (Article 4) and the right to property (Article 14). Such acts amount to crimes under South Sudan’s Penal Code (2008), including murder (section 206), criminal force (section 224), rape (section 247), theft (section 293), and mischief (section 315). Moreover, the Government’s armed forces are also subject to the provisions of the SPLA Act (2009). In particular, section 57 of the SPLA Act establishes the offences of destroying and damaging property, plunder and committing any offence against the property or person of any inhabitant or resident of a country in which he or she is serving. Furthermore, the Commission finds reasonable grounds to believe that there was a nexus between the commission of these crimes and the non-international armed conflict that was ongoing in South Sudan at the time, because they occurred in the context of the SPLAorganized offensive against the SPLA-IO in Western Bahr el Ghazal. As such, they are violations of international humanitarian law under Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II to which South Sudan is a party and which it has implemented in its Geneva Convention Act (2012). They should also be investigated and prosecuted as war crimes under Article 4(a) (violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular murder, as well as cruel treatment such as torture, mutilation or any form of corporal punishment), 4(e) (outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault), and Article 4(f) (pillage) of the Draft Statute of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan. The Commission also finds reasonable grounds to believe that the killing of civilians, rape and sexual violence, destruction of private property and looting in the Wau Triangle was part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population. The attacks appear to have been systematic as the same patterns recurred across the different attacks on villages. Furthermore, the attacks were widespread as they occurred in over at least 10 173