Yakani says arms control necessary for peace realization as UN renews sanctions

JUBA – South Sudan prominent activist and Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) Edmund Yakani has said that the arms control in the world’s youngest country is necessary for realization of peace in the war-torn country.

This is after the UN Security Council voted by a narrow margin on Thursday afternoon to extend the arms embargo on South Sudan and a travel ban and financial sanctions for targeted individuals for a year.

The vote on the US-drafted resolution on South Sudan sanctions was 10-0 with China, Russia, India, Kenya and Gabon abstaining.

The UN panel of experts monitoring sanctions against South Sudan recommended earlier this year that the Security Council extend the arms embargo because of “persistent cease-fire violations” and intensifying violence in the country’s regions.

But South Sudan government denounced the sanctions calling it “counterproductive” and slammed Ghana, an African country, for voting in favor of the resolution which the government argues to be against the position of the African Union.

In a statement, the CEPO said the slow implementation in the revitalized peace agreement and the escalatory violence in most parts of the world’s youngest country motivated the international community to renew the measures.

“The arms embargo is a precondition of the international community for holding the conflicting parties in South Sudan accountable to matters of individual and community safety and protection,” the CEPO said in a statement extended to Sudans Post.

“The slow implementation of the security sector reform tasks, such as graduation of the proposed unified forces and embracing the rule of law, the ongoing deadly armed violence among our communities made the control of arms flow reliable for us in South Sudan,” the statement added.

Edmund Yakani, executive director of CEPO says “the South Sudan government needs to implement Chapter II of the revitalized peace agreement on transitional security arrangements and prevention of the deadly armed violence.”

“The flow of the arms in the hands of the civilians is disturbing and preventing human as well as society’s growth and development,” he added, “urging South Sudan’s government to double efforts in the implementation of the transitional security arrangements.”