South Sudan Slams UN Arms Embargo Renewal

(CHARLES LOMODONG/AFP/Getty Images)

The government of South Sudan has slammed the UN Security Council’s renewal of an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on the country.

Those accused of prolonging the conflict in South Sudan will remain under sanction.

Rights group Amnesty International has welcomed the decision.

"The (embargo) is crucial to curtailing the flow of weapons that have been used to commit or facilitate war crimes, human rights violations and abuses including conflict-related sexual violence," it said in a statement.

South Sudan's Foreign Minister Mayiik Ayii Deng called the resolution “counterproductive”.

He also criticized Ghana for having voted in favour of the resolution. The other African members of the Security Council - Gabon and Kenya - abstained.

“When the African Union rejected the arms embargo on South Sudan, Ghana was its chair. That our brotherly country, whom we look to as an anchor of Pan-Africanism, should vote against the African Union position disappoints us. We, nonetheless, have confidence that the Ghanaian Government will revisit its position,” Mr Ayii added.

South Sudan's envoy at the UN, Akuei Bona Malwal, said the renewal of the resolution may compound the economic misery the people of South Sudan are enduring.

Source: BBC