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Arms Embargo Holds South Sudan Hostage-Dau

By William Madouk

South Sudan government has criticized the UN Security Council for renewing sanctions and an arms embargo, saying the resolution is holding the country hostage, over past conflicts.

The UN Security Council on Tuesday, extended an arms embargo and sanctions imposed on individuals in South Sudan for a year (July 1, 2024), citing that this minimizes the risk of relapsing into carnage.

The UNSC also extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts, which assists the work of the South Sudan Sanctions Committee. Resolution 2683 was adopted with 10 votes in favor.

Five countries; China, Gabon, Ghana, Mozambique, and Russia abstained from voting.

The UN requests, “in close consultation with the UN Mission in South Sudan and the Panel of Experts, to conduct, no later than April 15, 2024, an assessment of progress achieved on the key benchmarks set out in Resolution 2577 adopted in 2021”.

It also requests the South Sudanese authorities to report, by the same date, to the Sanctions Committee on the progress achieved in this regard.

However, Juba authority terms the sanctions as unrealistic and did not reflect the progress South Sudan had made.

Acting minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Deng Dau, said the gov’t is ‘saddened’ by renewed sanctions and the arms embargo, terming it ‘counter-productive’.

“We object to it; we are unhappy that all the efforts that we have made have not been considered by the UNSC; we said sanctions and arms embargoes are counterproductive,” Dau remarked.

Mr. Dau argued that UN experts are hammering the same old stories of 2013 and 2016 conflicts to tarnish and portray a negative image of the government, adding that the country had overcome that long ago.

“The people of South Sudan have moved out of the war, but the Americans and the rest want to remind us, so that we remain in the trauma of war and angry among ourselves and not heal,” he stressed.

According to the minister, President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek are working at the same government; the armed forces that were fighting from SPLA-IO have been unified and graduated.

He stressed that despite the arms embargo, they would still deploy unified forces, but said the UNSC is trying to weaken the system since a soldier must be trained, have a rifle, and wear a uniform.

“But they push us to be seen as a country that cannot meet international standards, which is why they extended the sanction, and there are other motives rather than correction motives,” he emphasized.

Minister Dau is cynical on the actual roles played by the UN and its panel of experts in South Sudan.

“We continue to work, and we will have to really review whether it is appropriate to continue working with the people who are just employed to get [negative] stories—they call them UN experts,” he noted.

Mr. Dau highlighted that the country needs experts who can help in other development sectors other than those who “concoct stories for the country to be sanctioned”.

“They shouldn’t be experts on us; they should be experts on something—we need experts in agriculture, road construction but we don’t want experts who will talk to us about sanctions,” he stressed.

From 2013 to 2018, South Sudan suffered through a civil war between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar that was brought to a halt after the signing of the revitalized agreement.

In 2018, the Security Council imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan through Resolution 2428 and has since renewed it several times.

The Security Council expressed its readiness to review arms embargo measures, following an assessment by the Secretary-General of progress made towards five benchmarks.

These relate to the completion of the Strategic Defense and Security Review process contained in the 2028 peace agreement. The formation of the necessary unified forces; progress in establishing and implementing the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration processes

Progress is in the proper management of existing arms and ammunition stockpiles and the implementation of the Joint Action Plan for the Armed Forces to addressing conflict-related sexual violence.

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