UN ready to move on South Sudan sanctions

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - After months of threatening to impose sanctions on South Sudan leaders, the UN Security Council is ready to take action to punish those responsible for violence in the country, the council president said Tuesday.

The 15-member council had until now held off on sanctions to allow peace efforts by African regional leaders to yield results.

But with a flare-up of fighting, the council agreed to seriously consider sanctions that would target President Salva Kiir and his rival and former vice president Riek Machar.

"There is considerable interest among many council members to look very closely at applying targeted sanctions and also, for many, an arms embargo," said Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan, whose country chairs the council this month.

"That will be the subject of great interest in the coming weeks," he said.

The council in August threatened to slap sanctions on warring factions for failing to live up to a peace deal signed in May.

Under that deal, Kiir and Machar were to establish a unity government that never materialized.

"The actions of President Salva Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar in continuing to pursue a military solution to this conflict are unacceptable," the council said in a statement issued in August.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week called on the warring leaders to immediately stop fighting following the latest upsurge of violence in the oil-rich north.

The fresh fighting in the key northern oil town of Bentiu marked an end to a brief lull in hostilities in the country's 10-month war and coincides with the end of the rainy season, which made many roads impassable.

South Sudan descended into chaos and violence in December when a political dispute broke out between Kiir and Machar, but the turmoil has since broadened into an ethnic conflict.

The humanitarian situation in the country remains dire, with 1.8 million people displaced including 450,000 to neighboring countries.

Around four million people -- close to a third of the population -- are facing a food crisis.

• Politics & Government
• Foreign Policy
• Riek Machar
• South Sudan
• Salva Kiir
• the UN Security Council