“Based on its inquiry, the Commission finds that there are reasonable grounds to believe that acts of murder, rape and sexual violence, torture and other inhumane acts of comparable gravity, outrages upon personal dignity, targeting of civilian objects and protected property, as well as other abuses, have been committed by both sides to the conflict”, the report said. Bodies were drained of blood and other victims were forced to drink the blood or eat human flesh.
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The Commission said the struggle for political power and control of natural resources revenue, corruption and nepotism appear to be the key factors underlining the crisis in South Sudan.
Kiir had accused former vice president turned Nuer rebel leader, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup in December 2013, but the report published late on Tuesday found no credence to these claims and instead described a premeditated and organized plan of Dinka-on-Nuer violence.
Led by former Nigerian former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union investigators found out that the conflict started with a skirmish between members of the presidential guard in the capital, Juba, followed by the government-organized killings of ethnic Nuer civilians and soldiers. “Women are raped, people burnt”.
Mr Kiir is a Dinka while Mr Machar is a Nuer.
While an official starvation has not been declared, the report describes the worst conditions yet seen in a 22-month civil war marked by atrocities and accusations of war crimes, including the blockading of food supplies.
The report’s release was delayed from previous year amid fears it might harm the fragile and protracted peace process. But those negotiations have never led to a successful ceasefire, and the AU finally released the reports this week.
He added that South Sudan would be setting up their own commission to investigate. Almost four million people – more than a third of the population – are unable to meet their food needs because of severe food insecurity, a study last week reported. There has been an 80-per-cent increase in hunger levels in the past year, it said.
Ambassador Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, secretary for foreign affairs of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA-in opposition), said the rebels are not anxious about the report’s findings because they believe the culture of impunity must end.
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“Many children have arrived alone, their mothers killed in the fighting or during the journey, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, surviving on plant roots and whatever else they can forage”.
