{"id":120482,"date":"2021-04-28T09:47:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T01:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=120482"},"modified":"2021-04-28T09:47:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T01:47:57","slug":"south-sudan-at-risk-of-large-scale-conflict-un-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=120482","title":{"rendered":"South Sudan at risk of \u2018large scale conflict\u2019 – UN report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"President<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President Salva Kiir\u2019s and First Vice President of Sudan Riek Machar<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNITED NATIONS, April 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A United Nations report warns that the slow implementation of a revitalised peace accord in South Sudan risks pushing the country back into a \u201clarge-scale conflict\u201d.

Political, military and ethnic divisions in South Sudan are widening, leading to multiple violent incidents between the main signatories to last year\u2019s ceasefire, the possibility of renewed war, and nearly 100,000 people facing \u201cfamine-like conditions\u201d, it said.

In the 81-page report sent to the UN Security Council, a panel of experts said slow-moving reforms by President Salva Kiir\u2019s government and more than a year of political disputes and disagreements over how to implement the February 2020 ceasefire and a 2018 peace agreement has led to frayed relations between Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar.

Discontent within Kiir\u2019s Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement and his power base in the Dinka ethnic group over his handling of the transition \u201chas led to calls for new leadership\u201d, said the report.

It quoted multiple confidential sources in Kiir\u2019s camp as saying divisions had formed over the distribution of government positions and the president\u2019s attempts \u201cto manage internal tensions among his supporters had failed and resulted in security incidents outside the capital\u201d.

As for Machar, the panel said his inability to influence the government\u2019s decision-making or spur implementation of the ceasefire has led the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement-Army in Opposition, which the vice president heads, to begin \u201cto break apart\u201d.

Some political and military leaders in Machar\u2019s camp are challenging his leadership, and some officers have defected to the government, the experts said.

There were high hopes for peace and stability once oil-rich South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. But the country slid into ethnic violence in December 2013 when forces loyal to Kiir started battling those loyal to Machar, his former vice president who belongs to the Nuer ethnic group.

Numerous attempts at peace failed, including a deal that saw Machar return as vice president in 2016 only to flee months later amid renewed fighting. The civil war has killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions.

Intense international pressure followed the recent peace deal and coalition government led by Kiir, with Machar as his deputy. But the government has failed to achieve many reforms, including completing the unification of army command, graduating a unified force, and reconstituting the Transitional National Legislative Assembly.

\u201cGiven the concerns of civil society, political leaders and military officials regarding the ability of the agreement to bring lasting peace to South Sudan and their nascent calls for Mr Kiir and Mr Machar to step down, urgent engagement is needed to avert a return to large-scale conflict,\u201d the panel said.

The experts cited multiple sources in the government and armed groups mostly agreeing that two and a half years after the signing of the peace agreement, its momentum has waned. They said officials from Kiir and Machar\u2019s parties also mainly agreed \u201cthe slow pace of implementation and the shifting political stances of some of the signatories had made the agreement unlikely to be implemented\u201d.

The panel also said the unity government has failed to improve protections of the rights of civilians \u201cwho have faced continued threats from government security forces and armed groups\u201d.

The international famine warning system has reported that about half of South Sudan\u2019s population faces \u201chigh levels of acute food insecurity\u201d, and more than 92,000 people living in several areas \u2013 including the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, northern Bahr al-Ghazal and Warrap \u2013 \u201cwere facing famine-like conditions as of early March 2021\u201d, the experts said.

The people of South Sudan \u201care in need of humanitarian assistance in 2021 than ever before\u201d, the report said.

\u201cDespite the humanitarian needs of 8.5 million people, the government has imposed bureaucratic barriers to the delivery of humanitarian aid, and ongoing conflict has prevented its safe delivery,\u201d it added.

The experts also called for an arms embargo, which is set to expire at the end of May, to be kept in place and for new sanctions against those hindering implementation of the revived 2018 peace agreement and obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid.

They also called for an independent assessment of how the government is managing its arms stockpiles. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Salva Kiir\u2019s and First Vice President of Sudan Riek Machar UNITED NATIONS, April 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A United Nations report warns that the slow implementation of a revitalised peace accord in South Sudan risks pushing the country back into a \u201clarge-scale conflict\u201d. Political, military and ethnic divisions in South Sudan are widening, leading to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":120483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120482"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}