UN Security Council threatens action against South Sudan
Thu Jul 17, 2014 10:33pm GMT
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS, July 17 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council warned on
Wednesday it is ready to consider "appropriate measures" against warring
parties in South Sudan if they do not stop the violence in the world's
youngest nation and negotiate a transitional government.
The United States and the European Union have already imposed sanctions on
military leaders on both sides. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Samantha Power has urged the Security Council to also consider imposing
targeted sanctions.
South Sudan has been in political turmoil since President Salva Kiir sacked
his deputy Riek Machar last year, triggering a conflict that reopened deep
ethnic tensions in the world's youngest country, which only won independence
from Sudan in 2011.
Kiir comes from the dominant Dinka ethnic group, while Machar, now a rebel
leader, is from another major tribe, the Nuer.
The Security Council was "alarmed by information that both parties were
recruiting and acquiring weapons in violation of the agreement of June 10,"
said Rwandan Deputy U.N. Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, president of the
council for July.
He said the 15-member council "stands ready to consider appropriate measures
in consultation with countries of the region against those who will not
implement the commitment to peace in South Sudan."
The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) - the East African
bloc brokering peace talks - said on June 10 that both Kiir and Machar had
agreed to end the fighting, complete all peace negotiations within 60 days,
and form a transitional government of national unity.
The fighting in South Sudan erupted in mid-December after months of
political tensions sparked by the sacking of Machar. Thousands have died in
the conflict and more than 1.3 million people have been driven from their
homes.
The U.N. Security Council almost doubled the mandated number of peacekeepers
in late December to 12,500 troops and 1,323 police, but so far only some
8,100 troops are on the ground. Peacekeepers are sheltering 100,000
civilians at U.N. bases.
U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos briefed the Security Council on the situation in
South Sudan and neighboring Sudan on Wednesday. The United Nations has
warned that millions of people could be on the brink of starvation because
violence has disrupted the planting season.
The council expressed "deep concern about the deterioration of the situation
in South Sudan, including in its humanitarian dimension, which has put about
one million people under threat of famine," Nduhungirehe said. (Reporting by
Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jan Paschal)