U. S. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the U. N. Security Council on Tuesday to impose an arms embargo and additional sanctions on South Sudan to pressure the parties to end the civil war in the world’s newest nation — but Russia and China remain opposed.
UNITED NATIONS — U. S. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the U. N. Security Council on Tuesday to impose an arms embargo and additional sanctions on South Sudan to pressure the parties to end the civil war in the world’s newest nation — but Russia and China remain opposed.
Two counties in South Sudan are already in the throes of famine and Haley warned the council that 5.5 million people — half the country’s population — face “life-threatening hunger if nothing changes soon.”
“We must not wait for more deaths, more displacement and more destruction before we have the courage to act, ” she said.
There were high hopes that South Sudan would have peace and stability after its independence from neighboring Sudan in 2011. But the country plunged into ethnic violence in December 2013 when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, started battling those loyal to Riek Machar, his former vice president who is a Nuer.
A peace deal signed in August 2015 has not stopped the fighting, and clashes last July between supporters of Kiir and Machar set off further violence. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 3.5 million to flee their homes.
In March, a U. N. inquiry found the country is experiencing ethnic cleansing and the conditions for genocide are present.
Haley said the beneficiary of the division in the Security Council is South Sudan’s government.
