The UN Security Council on Friday extended for one year the arms embargo imposed on South Sudan since 2018, with a clause providing for a review of its relevance in April 2022.
The resolution extending the embargo until May 31, 2022 was adopted by 13 votes in favour on the 15-member panel. India and Kenya abstained.
The embargo prohibits the supply, sale or transfer of weapons, as well as the provision of technical assistance, training and other military assistance, to the territory of South Sudan.
The council expressed readiness to review the arms embargo, through modification, suspension, or progressive lifting of these measures, in the light of progress achieved on five key benchmarks.
They include a restructuring of defense and security forces, the implementation of a disarmament program, demobilization and reintegration of combatants and reform of armament and ammunition stockpile management.
The council requested the South Sudan government to report on progress achieved on those benchmarks, as well as additional reforms, to the committee overseeing the country’s sanctions by no later than 15 April 2022.
The resolution also extended until 1 July 2022, the mandate of the panel of experts assisting the South Sudan Sanctions Committee.
It required the panel to provide the Council with an interim report by 1 December 2021, a final report by 1 May 2022, and except in months when those reports are due, updates each month.
It also called upon all parties, organizations and member states, especially those neighbouring South Sudan, to cooperate with the panel.
South Sudan suffered through six years of civil war that claimed more than 380,000 lives. In February 2020, a unity government was formed under a peace deal signed in September 2018 between President Salva Kiir and opposition leaders.
However, parties to the peace agreement are yet to unify and deploy armed forces. The formation of a unified army is a cornerstone of the peace agreement.