Findings from a  U.N. investigation suggest people in South Sudan have been “deliberately starved” in different parts of the country for ethnic and political reasons. The investigation also uncovered a pattern of sexual violence being used as a weapon of war.

The three-member commission, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, also said South Sudan's political elites are 'oblivious’ to the suffering of civilians.

They warned of inter-communal conflict and terrible rights violations "in large swathes of territory”.

“The fact of destruction of crops or taking away the possibility of getting access to water through boreholes and so on, that can constitute the war crime of starvation, because your intention is to starve the civilian population….in this case by both sides, as we've documented,” said Professor Andrew Clapham, a member of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. 

Violence has eased over the past year, though reported human rights violations have continued, and on Thursday, three United Nations agencies warned that some 6.5 million people in South Sudan – more than half of the population – could be in acute food insecurity at the height of this hunger season (May-July).