New York, September 4, 2015 (SSNA) — The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday held a closed-door session on South Sudan after the recently signed power-sharing deal failed to take hold, with council members voicing concerns over the implementation of the agreement.
The council warns that the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) could help implement the deal.
The meeting comes as South Sudan’s warring factions blaming each other for ceasefire violations and one day after US Secretary of State John Kerry warned South Sudanese president to respect the peace deal.
At the gathering, US Ambassador Samantha Power said the UNSC could soon impose “a global travel ban and an assets freeze” on the two unnamed South Sudanese.
Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin, who chairs the 15-member council this month, told reporters after the meeting that the UN is prepared to consider “appropriate measures including an arms embargo and additional targeted sanctions" against anyone who violates the truce.
Churkin added that the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) “would be tasked with helping to implement the peace accord.”
Fighting erupted in December 2013 between different units of presidential guards after months of political scuffle between senior leaders of the SPLM.
More than two million South Sudanese fled their homes, hundreds of thousands fled to the neighboring countries, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the nearly two-year old civil war.