The United States will consider sanctions on leaders in South Sudan if
they fail to form a unity government for the troubled young nation by their
self-imposed deadline of November 12, a US official said.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar
agreed in a rare meeting last month to work together and help bring an end to
unrest that has killed some 380,000 people and left more than six million
people in dire need of food aid.
South Sudan opposition leader Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir before their meeting in Juba, South Sudan, on September 11, 2019. |
Bryan Hunt, the State Department's office director for Sudan and South
Sudan, warned that Western powers would not accept another delay in the
deadline, which was already extended by six months.
"We're not prepared to continue to hear arguments for why more time
must be given. We think it's past time, frankly, for the leadership to sit
together and begin to find ways to move this country forward," he said.
"Our view is that if the government is not formed by November 12,
we're going to need to re-evaluate the relationship between the United States
and South Sudan," he told reporters at the US Institute of Peace.
Asked what measures could be taken, Hunt said options included sanctions
targeting South Sudan's elite or restrictions on their travel to the United
States.
He said the United States was not considering cutting off its $1
billion in annual assistance as it is largely humanitarian, supporting food and
other basic needs among ordinary people.
"I don't think we should make them pawns or victims in a game of
putting pressure on the South Sudanese government, however tempting that at
times may be," he said.
But Hunt and his counterpart from Britain—which along with Norway make up
a troika that leads policy towards South Sudan—voiced hope the leaders would
meet the deadline.
Robert Fairweather, Britain's special representative for Sudan and South
Sudan, said Kiir assured him on the unity government during a meeting last week
in Juba.
"Certainly it's the most optimistic I had seen him,"
Fairweather said.
He said that a unity government should offer "a new approach"
with ordinary people seeing a "trickle-down effect" of more
stability.
The enmity between Kiir and Machar, who lives in exile in Khartoum,
plunged South Sudan into war in 2013, just two years after its hard-fought
independence.
More than four million South Sudanese—almost a third of the
population—have fled their homes.
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