A/HRC/40/69 the forces divided and fanned out. From Leer, some troops continued south towards Pilling and Thonyor (the SPLA-IO (RM) area headquarters) and on to Adok port. 69. Over the next two months, SPLA and SPLA-IO (TD) soldiers and affiliated militia conducted offensives throughout Leer and Mayendit counties, attacking at least 40 towns and villages, in which they targeted civilians with astonishing brutality. The Commission was told of older men being hung from trees, people being burned in their tukuls and children being run down by tanks as they fled. Civilians fled into the swampy areas but were pursued by amphibious military vehicles and deliberately shot at. Some hid in the swamps for a month, eating water lilies to survive. Some drowned. 70. Most witnesses described rampant rape and sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls, including lactating mothers and girls as young as 7 years of age. Some women died because of the brutality of the rapes and at least one woman was shot and killed when she resisted being gang-raped. Women and girls were abducted by government soldiers and affiliated militia and forcibly taken as “wives”. 71. Soldiers and militia looted people’s possessions, burning tukuls and villages. Satellite images reveal that approximately 7,345 structures were damaged or destroyed in the area during the offensive. The offensive resulted in massive population displacement and ensuing food insecurity. Displaced civilians in desperate need of assistance were unable to access it as humanitarian organizations reported their properties being attacked and looted, leading to the withdrawal of their staff in some instances. 72. Although the fighting in southern Unity state had largely subsided by the end of June 2018, the area remains of concern. The Commission received reports of recruitment in the area even after the signing of the Revitalized Agreement in September 2018, although the Government’s explanation for this is the reintegration of SPLA-IO (TD) forces into the government forces. Violations and alleged crimes: findings 73. The Commission finds reasonable grounds to believe that the SPLA Fourth Division, SPLA-IO (TD) and militia from Koch county engaged in killings, rape, beatings, abductions, and the looting and destruction of property in Mayendit and Leer counties between April and June 2018. Evidence in the Commission’s possession provides reasonable grounds to believe that these forces directed attacks against the civilian population and did so with the intent to forcibly displace the civilian population. 74. These acts amount to serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law, and should be investigated and prosecuted as war crimes and crimes against humanity. B. Central Equatoria state 75. Since 2016, when Central Equatoria was brought into the conflict after then First Vice-President Riek Machar fled southward from Juba and many of his troops remained in Central Equatoria, it has been one of the most fractured areas of the conflict. Government forces have consistently held most towns and the main roads. In so doing, they have carried out attacks against the civilian population. 76. Initially, a significant number of Equatorians joined SPLA-IO out of discontent over the perceived Dinka domination of political and security institutions and abuses allegedly perpetrated by SPLA against Equatorian communities. However, in 2018, an increasing number of Equatorians defected from SPLA-IO to join other groups, including the National Salvation Front and South Sudan National Movement for Change, as they came to view SPLA-IO as behaving no better toward their communities than SPLA. The Commission documented instances of arbitrary arrests and detentions, extrajudicial killings, rape and looting by both SPLA and SPLA-IO in Central Equatoria in 2018. 77. The situation has been further complicated and destabilized by a number of groups, including the National Salvation Front, refusing to sign the peace agreement, mainly because it does not guarantee the introduction of federalism and power-sharing. This has 10