Salva Kiir. Photo: VOA
Juba, February 11, 2021 (SSNA) — The government of South Sudan has asked the European Union to help in its bid to lift arms embargoes imposed on the young nation in 2018 by both the United States and the United Nations.
The move comes as parties to South Sudan’s revitalized peace agreement wrestle with its implementation.
“We are very concerned about our government officials who have been sanctioned by the UN and US,” deputy foreign minister Deng Dau Deng said on Thursday.
Deng also wants the EU to assist in getting sanctions imposed on some senior government officials lifted.
In February 2018, the United States imposed an arms embargo followed by the United Nations in July of the same year.
The U.S targeted high-profile South Sudanese government officials including current vice president Taban Deng Gai, information minister Micheal Makuey Lueth, presidential advisor, and former defense minister Kuol Manyang Juuk, among others. The United States accused the officials of impeding peace implementation. Deng claims that these individual sanctions are hindering peace implementation.