Moscow Calls on UN Security Council to Consider South Sudan's Situation Improvement

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2020) Russia is calling on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to take into consideration that the security situation in South Sudan is improving, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

In late May, the UNSC renewed its sanctions on South Sudan, including the arms embargo, for one more year, despite objections by African nations, Russia and China. The council members who supported the decision said that the proliferation of weapons in the country could only jeopardize the fragile peace.

"Since 2016, we have a defense cooperation agreement signed between our two governments. We agreed to use this sector of our cooperation in the interest of increasing security and defense capacity of South Sudan, clearly as the restrictions on arms trade with this country imposed by the UNSC are lifted.

We stressed normalization of the situation in South Sudan due to the line of the government to implement the deals reached with the armed opposition. We believe that clearly the UNSC in its evaluations, in its resolutions has to take these realities into account," Lavrov said, following his talks with South Sudan's Foreign Minister Awut Deng Acuil.

In mid-December, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit said he had agreed with rebel leader Riek Machar to form a national unity government within 100 days, after repeatedly missing deadlines.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011. Since 2013, it has been engulfed in a violent armed conflict between two rival ethnic groups, Dinka and Nuer, which has killed thousands of people and forced millions others to leave homes.