Post: #1
Title: NGOs urge Obama to impose an arms embargo on warring parties in South Sudan
Author: SudaneseOnline News
Date: 01-13-2015, 06:00 PM
Parent: #0
Jan 13, 2015-Khartoum-SudaneseOnline-Many African and international human rights groups urged U.S President Barack Obama to lead an effort in the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on all warring parties in South Sudan.
US officials said they are drafting a UN Security Council resolution that will impose international sanctions on those judged responsible for a conflict that has taken tens of thousands of lives.
Global action to deny access to weapons must be initiated immediately, the rights groups said in a letter to President Obama.
“More weapons will add more fuel to the fire, more attacks on civilians, arbitrary killings, rape, burnings and pillage,” said Geoffrey Duke, a leader of the South Sudan Action Network on Small Arms. “President Obama should do everything he can to ensure that this year is not a repeat of the horrific last year for South Sudanese.”
The Nairobi-based International Centre for Policy and Conflict is among the 29 signers of the appeal to President Obama. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also joined the lobbying effort.
Some analysts suggest that South Sudan’s neighbours may be unwilling to stem the flow of arms to factions they support inside the strife-torn country.
But the groups calling for an embargo note that the Intergovernmental Authority on Development had in November last year threatened South Sudan’s belligerents with “denial of the supply of arms and ammunition” if the conflict continued
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