July 14th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – The Amnesty International has welcomed a motion by the United Nations Security Council on Friday to impose arms embargo on South Sudan which has been in a bloody civil war since December 2013.
The United Nations Security Council narrowly passed a draft presented by the United States resolution calling for arms embargo on South Sudan.
Nine members voted in favor of the draft resolution while Russia, China, among others, including South Sudan’s neighbour, Ethiopia, which is hosting the peace talks abstained.
In a statement issued on Friday, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes region, Seif Magango said the Global restrictions on arms sales to South Sudan will significantly mitigate civilian casualties in the country.
“The UN Security Council’s much-anticipated vote to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan is a step in the right direction towards minimizing harm to civilians in the war-torn nation” Seif said in a statement.
The statement urged all the neighboring countries to work towards enforcing the new measures and prohibit illegal arms deals with South Sudan or countries that buy on behalf of the world’s youngest country.
“All states, especially South Sudan’s neighbors, must now strictly enforce the arms embargo and play their part in silencing the guns. The decision is long overdue and critically needed to cut off the flow of weapons into the country.” seif said in the statement.
The statement said that civilians in South Sudan have been targeted in a broad daylight using lethal weapons in full view of the international community when it could have been prevented such atrocities.
“Every day civilians are butchered using lethal arms in full view of the world. All states, especially South Sudan’s neighbors, must now strictly enforce the arms embargo and play their part in silencing the guns,” he said.
The Amnesty urges the UN Security Council to scale up a robust mechanism to ensure that all neighbouring states are in compliance with the restrictive measures to avoid past mistakes.
“The UN Security Council must also learn from past mistakes and implement robust mechanisms to monitor and enforce strict compliance with the embargo,” further said seif.
