A/HRC/31/49 1. Killings 13. The civilian death toll arising from the conflict appears in large part to have been due to the direct targeting of civilians by armed actors rather than to incidental losses arising from crossfire. 14. In late April 2015, in Unity State, the Government launched a multi-pronged attack to regain control over the territories under the control of the opposition. Backed by armed youth groups mainly from the Bul Nuer and the Jagei Nuer, the military offensive had a devastating impact on civilians. In what might be described as a “scorched earth” policy deliberately targeting civilians, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), backed by armed militia and county commissioners, killed civilians, including women, children and older persons, raped women and girls, looted and burned civilian property and pillaged tens of thousands of livestock. 15. According to a recent report by the Office of the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, the violence in Unity State caused, from November 2014 to November 2015, an estimated 10,553 civilian deaths, 7,165 of which were due to violence, and 829 deaths from drowning, the abduction of 890 persons and 1,243 persons to go missing. 3 The village of Gandor, in Leer County, for example, was repeatedly attacked by a mix of SPLA soldiers and groups of armed youths in May, August and November 2015. A witness described how, in the August attack, government forces backed by the groups shelled the entire village before they embarked on a massive operation of destruction and looting. One witness reported having seen a pregnant woman be shot in the back as she fled the attackers. 16. At the end of October 2015, Pilling, in Leer County, was attacked by SPLA soldiers and armed youths, mostly from the neighbouring county of Koch. One woman described how the attackers shot and killed her husband in her presence, and how the assailants later locked her grandfather in a storage room and burned him alive. In a similar incident during an SPLA attack at the end of November 2015 in the village in Maal, in Mayendit County, a woman reported that she had been forced to look on as her 80-year-old father-in-law was burned alive in a hut. 17. Several sources provided information about an incident on or around 22 October 2015, in Leer town. According to witnesses and other credible sources, approximately 60 cattle keepers suffocated while detained in a container in a former Catholic compound in Leer town, which was, at the time, apparently being used by the acting Leer County Commissioner and SPLA. The cattle keepers, who were mostly from the surrounding villages of Leer, were requested by SPLA and local authority officials to take their cattle to Leer for protection. Witnesses reported seeing the men being rounded up and taken to the container. Others reported seeing the container being guarded by an SPLA soldier at the Catholic compound. According to credible information, all men, with the exception of one, died within one or two days of detention. Their bodies were later dumped in a nearby area. In November, the assessment team visited the alleged dumping ground and confirmed the presence of human remains. If established, these act would constitute violations of the right to life and of the obligation to protect the life of the individuals in detention, including to investigate the cause of their death and to prosecute those found responsible. Moreover, the conditions of detention leading to the death of these individuals amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. 3 4 Crisis Impacts On Households in Unity State, South Sudan, 2014-2015, Office of the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, January 2016.