South Sudan slams Ghana’s decision to back arms embargo

JUBA, South Sudan

The South Sudanese government has described as “disappointing” Ghana’s decision to vote in favour of the recent renewal of arms embargo by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The UN Security Council on Thursday last week adopted a resolution to renew for a year, till May 31, 2023, an arms embargo against South Sudan.

Security Council Resolution 2633 (2022) was adopted by a vote of 10 in favour (Albania, Brazil, France, Ghana, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States) to none against, with five abstentions (China, Gabon, India, Kenya and the Russian Federation).

South Sudan government, however, applauded China, India, Russia, Gabon and Kenya for not voting for the sanctions on Juba. The five countries abstained from the vote. The resolution to extend the ban through May 2023, drafted by the United States, was passed with 10 out of 15 votes.

The vote by Ghana in favour of the U.S-drafted resolution angered Juba.

“That our brotherly country, whom we look to as an anchor of Pan-Africanism, should vote against the African Union position disappoints us. We, nonetheless, have confidence that the Ghanaian Government will revisit its position,” South Sudan’s Foreign Affairs ministry said in a statement.

“That some countries would dismiss the African Union’s stance on this matter shows an old hubris with no value for a world shaken by wars, including in Africa and Europe. When the African Union rejected the US-sponsored sanctions and arms embargo on South Sudan, Ghana was its chair”, it added.

South Sudan Minister Information minister Michael Makuei said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had written a letter to the UNSC protesting the decision.

“The government of South Sudan is dissatisfied and disappointed with the resolution of the Security Council because this resolution in the opinion of the government doesn’t actually serve the interest of the people of South Sudan and doesn’t in any way serve the proper implementation of the agreement,” he told the state-owned South Sudan television (SSBC) Friday.

“We call on members of the UNSC not to listen to individual reports that are presented without being substantiated and by so doing they take such decisions at a time when they are not properly substantiated,” he added.

On 28 May 2021, the UN Security Council renewed its arms embargo on the territory of South Sudan, which it first imposed in 2018, and identified the implementation of the 2021 action plan as one of five benchmarks against which renewal of the arms embargo would be reviewed in May 2022. - Africa