US submits draft arms embargo resolution on South Sudan to UNSC

But the US has submitted draft proposals for a UN arms embargo on South Sudan.

A South Sudanese rebel defector announced on Thursday he would not respect any agreement which the government of president Salva Kiir and his former deputy in the ruling (SPLM) party and government, Riek Machar, would sign.

Oil-rich South Sudan has been at war since December 2013, in which Kiir’s ethnic Dinka people are pitted against Machar’s Nuer.

Condemning the “senseless killing” of Moi, the CPJ said his death “will inevitably cast a pall over journalists in South Sudan, inducing them to self-censor as a means of survival”. He refused to sign the deal during a trip to Addis Ababa this week, saying on Twitter that the deal could not be sustained.

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.

“As the president has stated, if there was no agreement signed today, we would consider ways to raise the cost for intransigence”, Kirby said. The ensuing political infighting later intensified into a full-fledged civil war between the rebel army, led by Machar, and government forces.

Dlamini-Zuma issued the statement after meeting with representatives of the various worldwide parties involved in the so-called “IGAD-Plus” peace initiative for South Sudan.

Kiir – who watched the signing and briefly shook hands with Machar – had warned from the start of talks it would not be possible to sign a credible peace deal because rebel forces have split. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and over 100,000 others have taken shelter in UN bases throughout the country since the conflict flared up.

“All the stakeholders reviewed and reiterated the position they have already sent to the IGAD mediation, including the proposed positions that were provided in the Compromised Peace Agreement for South Sudan“, he said.

Seyoum Mesfin, the chief mediator for the African regional commerce group IGAD, stated on Monday that Kiir’s aspect required two weeks earlier than signing the peace deal that was accepted by the South Sudanese rebels. Both sides engaged in attrition wars despite ceasefire deals being signed.

On a recent visit to East Africa, US President Barack Obama threw his personal weight behind efforts to foster peace in a country midwifed into existence by Washington, but then, critics say, abandoned at birth.