South Sudan president may sign peace deal

President Salva Kiir is scheduled to sign the power-sharing agreement in Juba on Wednesday, alongside the leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia, but his spokesman said he had reservations.

South Sudan was plunged into a civil war in December 2013 when a political crisis sparked fighting between forces loyal to president Salva Kiir and rebels allied with his former deputy Riek Machar. The Security Council must act quickly.

The current Security Council president, Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu, told reporters that the council is ready to “act immediately” if he doesn’t.

“Therefore I want government of South Sudan to sign peace to avoid arm embargo, travel ban and flight zone restriction impose on our country”, Machar warned.

She said President Kiir had called a mini summit to take place on Wednesday “where the government of the Republic of South Sudan – as it has stated in the interests of peace – is expected to sign the proposed agreement”. The United Nations says young girls have been raped and burned alive. Doctors Without Borders said two of its staff members, Gawar Top Puoy and James Gatluak Gatpieny, were killed in Leer county of Unity state last week.

Loej, who heads the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, said attention must turn to the inter-ethnic fighting, which in some states is just as violent as the struggle opposing the Kiir and Machar camps. China North Industries Corp., or Norinco, provided arms that included 100 anti-tank guided missile launchers, 1,200 missiles, about 2,400 grenade launchers and 24 million rounds of various types of ammunition.

FIDH is also calling upon South-Sudan’s neighbouring countries as well as African regional institutions to support UNSC’s positive moves in that respect, especially since the arms embargo should help reinforce a regional environment that is more inviting to a political solution.

The panel of experts obtained and published a $850 million military “emergency budget” for the first six months of 2014, saying that buying weapons “was from the very beginning of the conflict a central policy option”. At least seven ceasefires have already been agreed and then shattered within days – if not hours – in the world’s newest country, which broke away from Sudan in 2011.