General News

UN human rights commission to visit South Sudan in September

Date: Jul 25, 2016

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights plans to visit South Sudan and Ethiopia in September to hold meetings with government officials, opposition leaders, civil society, citizens, intergovernmental organisations and regional leaders.

The Commission decided on the visit following the violence, which broke out in South Sudan several weeks ago, between supporters of South Sudan President Salva Kiir and supporters of First Vice President Riek Machar, claiming over 300 lives.

The Commission was established in March 2016 to monitor and report on the human rights situation in South Sudan for a year. Its mandate includes liaising with regional and international actors including the UN, African Union (AU), Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) and civil society.

Following intense discussions during July’s 27th AU Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, the AU passed a resolution to deploy a third-party force to separate rival forces of Kiir’s and Machar.

IGAD’s Council of Ministers also met in Kenya recently and resolved that there was need for extra troops to back the UN mission in the young nation.

This followed a request by UN Security Council (UNSC) to peacekeepers contributing nations to prepare their troops for possible deployment in South Sudan in order to avert a possible outbreak of further violence.

There is already a 12,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force in South Sudan, but it is understood that approved regional troops would play a much bigger role.

Samuel Luate Lominsuk, the South Sudan Ambassador to Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, told the African News Agency (ANA) that July’s bloody clashes broke out after followers of missing First Vice President Riek Machar opened fire on government troops at a roadblock, manned by the latter.

“Subsequent clashes by the same armed gunmen then broke out at the Juba presidential compound when they tried to enter the compound where both Kiir and Machar were holding talks,” Lominsuk told ANA during an interview in Kigali.

On Saturday during a meeting with Kiir in Kampala, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni advised the former “not to reject deployment of an additional regional, third-party force in Juba but to instead focus on negotiating the level of their mandate as they deploy in the country”.

“Museveni said failure to comply with the AU’s endorsed deployment of the troops to Juba would complicate the matter and result in further tougher measures which could be taken against the country and its leadership,” reported the Daily Monitor.

Museveni’s advice followed Kiir’s vow last week that he would not allow even one single foreign soldier to be deployed to South Sudan and any deployed foreign troops would be attacked.

In further signs of instability, Kiir issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Machar last Thursday ordering him to return to Juba after he went missing, reported the Sudan Tribune.

A spokesperson for Machar, however, said that the first vice President would only return once Juba’s security was improved by the deployment of additional foreign forces, as outlined by IGAD, the UN and the AU.

In addition to political opposition from Kiir, Machar is facing internal dissent from his own followers.

Last Thursday a handful of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) nominated Machar’s former chief negotiator and mining minister, Taban Deng Gai, as their interim leader to replace Machar.

Furthermore, on the ground the humanitarian continues to deteriorate with the UN reporting thousands more civilians fleeing South Sudan into Uganda.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) last Thursday called on the UN Security Council to immediately impose an arms embargo on the South Sudan.

“This should include the supply, sale, transfer, maintenance, and operation of all weapons, ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, and related services. This will help reduce unlawful attacks on civilians,” said HRW.

"It will send a strong message that the international community will not enable those fighters who have shown a complete disregard for the laws of war easy access to weapons and ammunition with which they can rearm and commit or facilitate further abuses, added the rights group."

--ANA--

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