UN renews South Sudan arms embargo and travel bans

The United Nations has renewed the arms embargo, travel ban and assets-freeze imposed on South Sudan for a year, ‘and extended for 13 months the mandate of the panel of experts tasked with helping to oversee those measures, while expressing its readiness to adjust them in light of conditions on the ground.’

It said that, ‘Adopting resolution 2577 (2021) under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter by a vote of 13 in favour to none against, with two abstentions (India, Kenya), the Council decided to renew until 31 May 2022 the arms embargo imposed by paragraph 4 of resolution 2428 (2018) — which prohibited the supply, sale or transfer of weapons, as well as the provision of technical assistance, training and other military assistance, to the territory of South Sudan.

‘The Council expressed its readiness to review the embargo measures — including through their modification, suspension or progressive lifting — in light of progress achieved on five key benchmarks. Those included the completion by the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity of stages 1, 2 and 3 of the country’s strategic defence and security review; the formation of a unified command structure and redeployment of the Necessary Unified Forces; progress on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration; progress on properly managing existing arms and ammunition stockpiles; and the implementation of the Joint Action Plan for the Armed Forces on addressing conflict-related sexual violence.’

See the resolution at: https://undocs.org/S/RES/2577(2021)