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United Nations seeks troops for new South Sudan force

There is no sign of significant arms procurement by the opposition in recent months, the report says.

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South Sudan President Salva Kiir, former deputy Riek Machar and those close to both men have looted the country in accumulating wealth that includes mansions, luxury cars and stakes in a number of businesses overseas, according to the report by The Sentry.

The report, on arms flows and security threats to South Sudan since a transitional government was formed in April, strengthens the case for an arms embargo, a move recommended by the monitors to the Security Council in January.

“While the panel has received preliminary reports from two sources that the jets were serviced and painted in Uganda, the panel has not yet been able to confirm their origin or if these jets have been purchased or are on loan”, the monitors said.

South Sudan’s civilians are “bearing the brunt of the resulting harm” as weapons continue to be procured, the report says.

The council has threatened to impose an arms embargo if the Juba government blocks the deployment.

The two-and-a-half year conflict has escalated from a “primarily political to a tribal war”, said the report.

The influx of rebel fighters from volatile neighbors is a sensitive theme in Congo, where the flow of Hutu militiamen from neighboring Rwanda after its 1994 genocide helped trigger years of regional conflict in eastern Congo that killed millions.

The United Nations will be asking countries from outside east Africa to contribute troops and helicopters to a new regional force to be deployed in South Sudan, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

The report comes just days after a security council visit to South Sudan created to put pressure on the government to allow in the 4,000 additional peacekeepers.

The visiting diplomats also pressed South Sudan’s government to hold accountable soldiers who have been accused of rampaging through a hotel compound popular with foreigners in the July chaos, raping women, beating people and forcing everyone to watch a local journalist be shot dead.

The monitors said that given the number of soldiers involved, the number of items stolen and the systematic damage inflicted, “this attack was well coordinated and can not be considered as an opportunistic act of violence and robbery”.

African leaders called for the force after heavy fighting engulfed Juba in early July, setting back efforts to end the devastating war that has raged in South Sudan since December 2013.

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Last weekend, the Security Council visited South Sudan to show solidarity with its people and to see firsthand the devastating effects on innocent civilians of almost three years of conflict.

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