Is peace on the horizon in South Sudan? Salva Kiir could sign deal with rebels

The council will take immediate action if Mr Kiir does not sign on Wednesday, the current UN Security Council president, Nigerian ambassador Joy Ogwu, told reporters.

South Sudan has been at war since December 2013^[1], when a split within the security forces escalated into a violent rebellion led by Mr Machar. The ethnic nature of the violence has alarmed the international community.

Thousands of people have been killed. More than 1.6 million people have been displaced. The UN said young girls have been raped and burned alive. Doctors Without Borders on Tuesday said two of its staff members were killed in Unity state last week.

A report by a UN panel of experts, made public on Tuesday, said both sides in the conflict between government forces and rebels have targeted civilians. It also said "the intensity and brutality of the violence" since April has been the worst in an "exceedingly violent conflict."

The panel, which monitors UN sanctions, said a major Chinese state-owned arms supplier sold weapons worth more than $20 million (£13 million) to South Sudan's government last year, several months into the conflict.

China North Industries Corp., or Norinco, provided arms that included 100 anti-tank guided missile launchers, 1,200 missiles, about 2,400 grenade launchers and 24 million rounds of various types of ammunition.

The report also said South Sudan's military has somehow obtained four attack helicopters since the start of the conflict. It had none before then.

The panel of experts obtained and published a $850 million military "emergency budget" for the first six months of 2014, saying that buying weapons "was from the very beginning of the conflict a central policy option".

Meanwhile, oil-rich South Sudan's public debt has climbed from zero at its independence in 2011 to $4.2 billion as of June.

The report said the panel has started to investigate "the financing channels used by the government and the opposition to prosecute the war and into those individuals and entities who gain financially from the continuation of the conflict."

References

1. ^{^} South Sudan has been at war since December 2013 (www.telegraph.co.uk)