The African Union has threatened ‘targeted sanctions’ against South Sudanese who block peace in the country and called for cessation of hostilities, which has been agreed by both parties to the conflict but not yet signed on paper.
AU diplomats made the statement in support of mediation efforts of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which represents a bloc of East African states and is chaired by Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn of Ethiopia.
In a resolution of the AU Peace and Security Council, the regional body “reiterated its determination to impose targeted sanctions against all those found to be obstructing peace and reconciliation efforts in South Sudan.”
The resolution came in a meeting of the Council on Thursday but was not revealed to the press until Saturday. In the same document the AU also called for “immediate and unconditional cessation of hostilities.”
Threats of sanctions were made by the United States government a week earlier “due to the failure of leaders in the world’s youngest nation to take steps to end a crisis that has brought the country to the brink of civil war,” according to a report by the news agency Reuters.
US government sources apparently deliberately leaked the plan to Reuters, while the threatened measure was also explained by a professor of the US National Defense University, which is funded by the American military, in recent testimony before the US Congress.
“The United States should move to invoke the president’s authorities to institute travel bans and asset freezes on senior leadership on both sides, as well as be prepared to extend those sanctions multilaterally to a resolution in the UN Security Council,” said the professor, Kate Almquist Knopf.
Traditionally US sanctions involve a ban on travel to the United States and freezing of assets in US banks. But the sanctions can also target not only individuals but also entire entities or sectors within a country, such as a government or government department.
According to the Reuters report, the threat of US sanctions came after President Salva Kiir “refused to release 11 detainees despite promising Washington last month that he would free most of them.”
The African Union Peace and Security Council is expected to convene again to review the situation in South Sudan on 29 January during a meeting of African heads of state in Addis Ababa.