South Sudan: Obama Imposes U.S Sanctions

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and his cabinet are reviewing the executive order signed by U.S. President Barack Obama that threatens U.S. sanctions against anyone who incites or commits violence in South Sudan, or blocks the peace process, a spokesman for Kiir said Friday.

"The... order that was signed by President [Obama] yesterday, we received it this morning and the President has briefed the Council of Ministers," presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told reporters at a hastily convened news conference.

"The Council of Ministers is studying the document and will... respond to the letter in question. But as of now, they are still studying the document," he said.

President Obama signed an executive order Thursday, clearing the way for travel bans and the seizure of assets in the United States of any person or entity found by the U.S. authorities to have incited violence in South Sudan or to be impeding the country's slow-moving peace talks, which have been put on hold until the end of April.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a written statement that the executive order "sends a clear message: those who threaten the peace, security, or stability of South Sudan, obstruct the peace process, target U.N. peacekeepers or are responsible for human rights abuses and atrocities will not have a friend in the United States and run the risk of sanctions."

The order applies to "both the Government of South Sudan and Riek Machar's rebels," the statement said, calling on both sides to "immediately engage in and follow through on the inclusive peace process" that east African regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), has been mediating since January.

Samatha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said the executive order showed that the United States "firmly intends to hold accountable those bent on undermining a peaceful, political settlement of the crisis in South Sudan, and anyone who threatens the safety and well-being of civilians."

More than one million civilians have been forced by the fighting to flee their homes and nearly four million -- more than a third of the population -- are threatened by severe food insecurity and illness as the conflict stretches into a fourth month.