AFRICA/SOUTH SUDAN – Appeal for embargo on arms entering South Sudan, grave humanitarian crisis impending

Friday, 5 September 2014

Juba (Agenzia Fides) - “As long as arms are imported into South Sudan, they will most probably be used to commit more atrocities” say the signees of an appeal for an embargo on arms sales to South Sudan, a country disrupted since December 2013 by civil war.
The appeal, presented by 30 local and international humanitarian organisations (including South Sudan Law Society, Human Rights Society, Amnesty International, Global Witness, Human Rights Watch) is addressed to IGAD (Inter-government Development Authority) , organisation of east African countries which is mediating the South Sudan crisis) urging IGAD to present to the United Nations Security Council a proposal for a resolution to impose an arms embargo.
“The embargo must last until reliable procedures are established to guarantee that arms, ammunition and other technological military equipment sent to South Sudan are not used to commit grave violations of international humanitarian law” the appeal demands.
Civil warfare between the faction of the President Salva Kiir and that of the ex Vice President Riek Machar, has produced a serious humanitarian crisis. According to an article signed by members of humanitarian agencies of the European Union, United Nations, USA and the Norwegian foreign minister, published in the French Catholic daily “La Croix”, “more than half the population, that is 7.3 million people, suffer from hunger every day, and 50,000 children may die before the end of the year unless they receive emergency assistance”. An outbreak of cholera is already threatening the lives of thousands, and 1.5 million have been forced from their homes by war. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 5/9/2014


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