{{The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) said on Thursday it was prepared to consider imposing sanctions on South Sudan’s warring parties if attacks against civilians continues.}}
The statement follows an ethnically motivated massacre in Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity state in which at least 200 people died and the killing of dozens of internally displaced people (IDPs) who were sheltering at a UN base in Jonglei state capital Bor.
The violence has shattered a January ceasefire deal signed between both parties, aimed at ending hostilities which erupted in mid-December last year amid escalating political tensions between president Salva Kiir and his sacked former deputy Riek Machar.
UN peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous and UN assistant secretary-general for human rights Ivan Šimonovic briefed the 15-member council on Wednesday on the situation in South Sudan.
In a press statement issued from New York by UNSC president U. Joy Ogwu of Nigeria following the briefing, members said they were willing “to take additional measures should attacks on civilians and violations of the cessation of hostilities agreement continue”.
“The members of the Security Council strongly reiterated their demand for an immediate end to all human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, and expressed their readiness to consider appropriate measures against those responsible,” the statement adds.
Both the US and EU have already threatened South Sudan with sanctions, while French UN ambassador Gerard Araud has indicated that UNSC member states are likely “ready to go down the road of sanctions”.
US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week also urged the UNSC to “act decisively” by imposing targeted sanctions on South Sudanese figures connected with human rights abuses.
sudantribune
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