UN Security Council to vote over South Sudan sanctions

“There must be consequences for those who continue to stand in the way of peace”, she said, calling for UN Security Council sanctions if the government does not sign the deal within 15 days.

A travel ban and an assets freeze were slapped on the six men and the council is considering adding new names to the sanctions list, as well as an arms embargo.

THE South Sudan has told US Secretary of State John Kerry that he intends to sign a peace accord meant to end the civil war in that country, the State Department said Wednesday.

But government officials denounced the deal to end 20-months of war as a “sellout”, saying it was not possible to sign a credible agreement because the rebel forces have split.

Chatham House researcher Ahmed Soliman said when a Monday deadline passed with no deal, “it was not very surprising, given the developments over the last 20 months”.

Reports of fighting could not be independently confirmed, but the blame game came after a Monday deadline ended to sign a peace deal.

Under the IGAD’s mediation, the partial agreement was signed by representatives of the SPLM/SPLA in Opposition and former detainees of South Sudan as well as by other stakeholders.

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the situation in South Sudan where President Salva Kiir, speaking at a news conference on 16 August, threatened to have journalists murdered if they “work against their country” and where reporter Peter Moi was gunned down outside his office in the capital three days later.

Indeed, the South Sudan government now appears more rather than less intransigent.

“Fighting in South Sudan has caused enormous suffering and loss for millions”, Owusu said.

“If anybody among [journalists] does not know that this country has killed people, we will demonstrate it one day, one time”, Kiir said Sunday on leaving for peace talks in Addis Ababa.

Despite countless rounds of talks under IGAD’s auspices, the two South Sudanese rivals failed to work out a peace deal.

Meanwhile, spokesperson of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Paddy Ankunda said he would comment on the matter after seeing the statement but said that the road was open and free for Ugandan traders to transport their goods to Juba.

The country, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, descended into chaos in December 2013 when a political row between Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar spiraled into armed conflict that reopened ethnic fault lines.

“Should we see the glass half-unfilled or half-full?” a negotiator at the discussions said, however including, that as they would see it, Kiir was left with “no decision” yet to sign.