South Sudan is under serious international instruments which badly sap the country’s progress in terms of development, and its interconnectedness to the global system.
This ideally isolated us and limit the engagement in international trades, investments, and international financial system.
Last week the U.S. government extended the national emergency on South Sudan, this according to the United States government, the country is posing unusual, extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of Americans.
As such, the order put South Sudan on spotlight with prohibition of some transactions related to trade, and assets freeze as a way to deal with the threat. This national emergency was issued in 2014, with Executive Order 13664, in pursuant to International Emergency Economic Power Act [50 U.S.C. 1701-1706] on ground that the conflicts in South destabilize peace, and security. Since then, the order has been continuously extended annually.
In 2018, UN Security Council imposed arms embargo on South Sudan which exerted efforts to control flow of arms to the territory of South Sudan. This arms embargo has been under extension yearly. The embargo places travel ban, and financial sanctions on targeted individuals.
On another note, the U.S. government through its Treasury Department placed numerous sanctions on some government officials, including other institutions and individuals’ entities.
These instruments are placed and extended based on the interests they have in South Sudan. These may include peace, security, and good governance, among others.
Despite the fact that South Sudan has attained relative peace, this has been ignored by the international community or seen as it has not met the benchmarks of the sanctions intended by the international players on the country.
This government has responsibility to make sure these embargoes, and sanctions are removed. This cannot be done by being tough on the people who placed the instruments or by taking confrontational hardline. And the government can make special request to the United Nations if it wants arms for its soldiers based on the necessity of the arms to the soldiers.
But first the primary focus by the government should be to work towards achieving lasting peace, avoiding actions that endanger the sovereignty of this country, respecting international laws, and improving the governance system to have a sound economy.
And the secondary focus should be championing strategic diplomacy with the United Nations and countries that supported the arms embargo, and sanctions on South Sudan. This can be done by streamlining clear foreign policy agenda with budget support design for this specific action, but only after the accomplishment of the primary focus.
This will give the government advantage and leverage to argue, and lobby based on the facts that there is substantive evidence of the work done to settle and improve the situations in South Sudan. And the citizens at least feel safe, and there is recovery in the conflicts affected areas.
If this is done respectively by the government, I don’t think there will be any extension of international instruments placed on South Sudan. The government will have ground to challenge any effort to have embargo, and sanctions by the international community. There will be no ground completely for such actions.
God protect South Sudan.
Be the Witness