A/HRC/40/69
created division among these opposition groups, resulting in an ever more fractured
situation in Central Equatoria.
78.
One particularly outrageous attack occurred in Goli in May 2018. Goli is located in
Central Equatoria state, approximately 30 km to the north-west of Yei town along the YeiTore-Maridi road. While the Government holds both Yei and Tore, SPLA forces do not
exercise control in the territory between and surrounding the towns, including the Goli area,
and SPLA-IO move freely.
79.
Emmanuel Christian College is located in Goli. Its compound includes a clinic, a
chapel and residences for teachers and students. Since the July 2016 conflict, it has offered
only primary-level schooling, as the main college was moved to Yei for security reasons.
Since 2016, the College has hosted approximately 4,000 internally displaced persons in its
compound.
80.
On the morning of 14 May 2018, a large number of SPLA soldiers from the
Presidential Guard Tiger Division based in Tore launched an attack on the College,
ostensibly searching for weapons and “rebels” in the compound. They rounded up and
separated men and boys from the women and girls, questioning the men about weapons and
threatening to kill them. A number of men were thereafter detained and beaten by soldiers
with the butts of guns and sticks.
81.
Ten men and boys were ultimately shot and killed, four of whom – two students, a
watchman and an internally displaced person – were lined up and executed at point-blank
range near the chapel and three others killed near the dormitories. A 12-year-old boy was
shot in his bed and had a stick forced up his anus. Two others were also killed: an internally
displaced person and a watchman who was shot while making his morning tea. The
Commission documented two cases of rape by SPLA soldiers, one of them involving two
soldiers.
82.
The soldiers also looted the compound. According to reports received by the
Commission, as the soldiers left after their 12-hour attack on the College, “they were
shooting in the air and celebrating in jubilation”.
Violations and alleged crimes: findings
83.
The Commission finds reasonable grounds to believe that both SPLA and SPLA-IO
were responsible for killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, rape, beatings and looting in
Central Equatoria in 2018. In particular, the SPLA Presidential Guard Tiger Division based
in Tore committed killings, rape, beatings and looting at the Emmanuel Christian College
on 14 May 2018. These acts amount to serious violations of human rights and humanitarian
law, and should be investigated and prosecuted as war crimes.
C.
Western Bahr el-Ghazal state
84.
Western Bahr el Ghazal is an ethnically mixed state, comprising several groups,
including Fertit, Luo and Dinka, who have a history of conflict. Since the beginning of the
current conflict, Wau town has been consistently under Government control. The presence
of opposition forces in the areas south and west of Wau – known as the Wau Triangle – has
resulted in intermittent fighting there since late 2015. The Commission, in its previous
report, described a number of outbreaks of violence and human rights violations in Wau
town since 2015.
85. In the first half of 2018, the Wau area remained relatively stable; however, on 3 June,
a new SPLA Fifth Division Commander arrived in Wau. Within two weeks, and as the
negotiations for the Revitalized Agreement gathered speed, SPLA launched a series of
attacks in the Wau Triangle, seeking to dislodge SPLA-IO from the area.
86.
Over the course of five months from mid-June 2018, there was sporadic fighting in
the Mboro, Bagari and Bisselia areas between SPLA and SPLA-IO. In the course of this
offensive, SPLA engaged in a concerted campaign against the civilian population in the
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