The United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on six generals accused of fuelling conflict in South Sudan.
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The men, three from either side of South Sudan’s conflict, are the first to be listed by the Security Council’s South Sudan sanctions committee, which operates by consensus.
The Mission has received information that three members of forces belonging to either the Sudan People’s Liberation Army In Opposition or the allied militia led by General Johnson Olony who are now controlling the Upper Nile state capital opened fire on IDPs at a recently opened protection-of-civilians site in the UNMISS compound on Wednesday.
“As the members of the Security Council demonstrated today, those who commit atrocities and undermine peace will face consequences”, USA Ambassador Samantha Power said in a statement.
The conflict soon turned into an all-out war, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer ethnic group.
South Sudan has seen fighting between supporters of President Salva Kiir and ex- vice president Riek Machar since December 2014.
Burned residential structures in Nhialdiu, in South Sudan’s Unity state, where government forces reportedly abducted several local women and girls, according to a recent United Nations report.
Power called on both sides to “put aside their self-serving ambitions, end the fighting, and engage in negotiations to establish a transitional government”.
“If the sanctions are meant to encourage the spoilers to be serious for peace, and to warn them that not doing so has a price or punishment, then they should target the right people”, said Lam Akol, a prominent opposition figure here.
The sanctioned individuals include, Major-General Marial Chanuong Yol Mangok, Lieutenant-General Gabriel Jok Riak, Major-General Santino Deng Wol, Major-General Simon Gatwech Dual, Major-General James Koang Chuol, and Major-General Peter Gadet will now be subject to a global travel ban and asset freeze for their contributions to a conflict that has left more than 6.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and forced more than 2 million from their homes, said the statement. At least seven ceasefires have been agreed but broken ever since.
But the deadline passed without objections, which means under United Nations rules that the request was approved.
UNMISS said the attacks constituted war crimes and such “indefensible actions will compromise the Mission’s ability to implement its mandate if they continue to go unpunished”.
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The worldwide Crisis Group had come out against the sanctions proposal, arguing that the six generals were not responsible for the failure to reach an agreement and warning that their support for any future deal could be jeopardised.
