Brussels, 11/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - In deciding on Thursday to impose targeted sanctions on two South Sudanese military leaders, the EU put into practice the threat it had been brandishing with regard to the warring parties of the two camps - that of President Salva Kir and that of Riek Machar, his former deputy president who was dismissed and is now leading the rebellion - which are hampering the peace process (see EUROPE 11119). The EU is stepping up pressure on the warring parties as it is greatly concerned about the catastrophic humanitarian situation of a state that became independent only on 9 July 2011 and is already in decline.
Since the outbreak of the conflict last December, “thousands of innocent people have lost their life. There are over half a million displaced people. Millions of people are in danger of famine. Terrible violations of human rights and crimes against humanity have been committed”, says the EU in a statement published on Thursday. The EU states its determination “to do everything possible to prevent the Sudanese people from further suffering”.
The ceasefire, to which the warring parties committed on 10 June with a view to setting up a transition government, has never taken place. “Civil war is spreading throughout the country. Ten thousand civilians have reportedly been killed in the most recent attacks and the situation is not improving. We have tried to broker peace and to put a political solution in place, but negotiations are not under way”, Nick Westcott, the managing director for Africa at the European External Action Service (EEAS), states. “These sanctions are very much a first step even if symbolic. We said that if the two sides did not come together we would take action. Unless there is further and swifter process to achieve reconstruction of a government that is accountable to the people of South Sudan, then we will take more action”, he warned.
A crisis potentially more serious than that in Syria. Alongside Westcott, Jean-Louis de Brouwer, the director of humanitarian operations and civil protection at ECHO (the European Commission's humanitarian aid and civil protection department), warned that the crisis in South Sudan was “potentially more serious than that with which the world is confronted in Syria”. At the end of June it was estimated that 1.1 million people had been displaced. “The number of cases of cholera has gone up from 43 on 14 May to 23,000 today. Around 70 people have already died and there are 650 suspected cases”, de Brouwer stated.
Added to this is a growing number of refugees - including 160,000 in Ethiopia, 40,000 in Kenya and 19,000 in Sudan. In addition, 4 million people out of a total population of 11 million inhabitants are in urgent need of food. Unicef has just launched a warning - 700,000 children need aid, 230,000 are suffering from malnutrition and 50,000 risk dying by the end of the year. (AN)