The United Nations Security Council has upheld a campaign by leading Kenyan human rights lobbies to extend the arms embargo on South Sudan.
The resolution to extend the restrictions on arms sales in the country until May 31, 2021 sailed through in a 12-3 vote at the council on Friday.
The council imposed the embargo in 2018 amid concerns that warlords and genocidal groups were importing guns and other lethal weapons with abandon, exacerbating the brutal six-year civil war that has left 380,000 dead and millions displaced.
Kenyan human rights crusaders including Mhuri executive director Abubakar Zein, UHAI Africa executive director Brian Kagoro, Kenya Human Rights Commission’s executive director George Kegoro and Inuka Kenya Trust CEO John Githongo were at the forefront in lobbying for the vote.
Human rights lawyers Makau Mutua and Maina Kiai, who is a former UN Special rapporteur on rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, also signed the document pushing for the resolution.
The activists were among 25 human rights defenders in Africa who penned a letter to the UN Security Council advising against lifting the restrictions.
They argued that even with the current embargo, the country’s elites were spending humongous amounts of dollars on weapons to fan the war at the expense of peacemaking, warning that lack of strong containment measures would spread the war.
“Lifting the embargo at this time would only strengthen the hand of those who seek to amass weapons for their political gain and would sign the death sentences of civilians desperate for an end to the suffering caused by these weapons,” the group said in the letter to UNSC.
The new resolution allows the council to conduct a mid-term review of the measures by December 15. The council is also required to give an assessment report of how the embargo was helping implement the 2018 peace agreement between President Salva Kiir and his archrival-turned-deputy Riek Machar.
The countries that voted against the resolution - Russia, China and South Africa – argued the measures were not conducive to promoting the peace process.
Edited by Henry Makori
