Politics

UN Security Council renews arms embargo sanctions on South Sudan

Published

2 years ago

May 28, 2022

The UN Security Council has renewed an arms embargo and sanctions including a travel ban and financial sanctions “for certain people” it placed on South Sudanl amid continuing unrest in the country.

The UN Security Council took the decision at its extraordinary meeting held on Thursday, resolving to extend the measures until May 2023.

The resolution which was drafted by the United States was passed with the support of 10 of the 15 council members with Gabon, Kenya, India, Russia and China abstaining.

The resolution strongly condemned “past and ongoing human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law, including the alarming surge in conflict-related sexual violence.”

The resolution, however, contains a provision for a possible easing of the restrictions for non-lethal military equipment if it is needed to fulfil the 2018 peace agreement.

The renewal of sanctions Africa’s youngest nation was made after a panel of experts recommended extending the sanctions in a report submitted this month, citing persistent ceasefire breaches and intensifying violence in the country’s regions.

The experts panel said the government breached the arms embargo after it purchased about 25 new armoured personnel carriers for the police.

“Conditions for millions of civilians are getting worse with violence, floods and displacement creating unprecedented levels of food insecurity across much of the country,” the panel noted.

It cited the UN World Food Programme’s warning in March that South Sudan was facing its “worst hunger crisis ever”, with about 8.3 million people needing food aid and 1.4 million children “acutely malnourished” as of December.

The original embargo was imposed in 2018 after a peace agreement ended five years of civil war between factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar leading to the killing of hundreds of thousands of people.

Related Topics:Featured Sanctions South Sudan United Nations

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

22 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.