South Sudan hopeful of UN Security Council lifting arms embargo

South Sudan’s government says it’s working to meet conditions set out by the United Nations Security Council for an arms embargo imposed on the country to be lifted.
“We have studied everything that affects security in this country, we have a document, the strategic security sector document,..some of the challenges include continuous transitional process, so we need to make sure that this transitional period succeeds so that we move to created a democratic country, this will reduce the level of violence and make us have a professional security sector.” Said Angelina Teny, South Sudan’s Defense Minister.

The UN Security Council put the arms embargo in place in 2018 when there was civil war in the country.

A peace deal was reached the same year but the UN says the level of inter-communal violence remains high.

South Sudan’s Defense Ministry says it’s hopeful that an arms embargo could be lifted next month.

The Ministry says the United Nations Security Council wants unified forces currently in training camps graduated and redeployed.

The UN also wants child soldiers demobilized and recruitment of forces by all parties in South Sudan stopped

It also wants the country’s army to be under one command.

Currently, there are various armed groups, which have been put together in training camps.

But they are loyal to their leaders and commanders.

South Sudan’s Defense Ministry says it’s working to meet the demands of the United Nations Security Council.

Angelina Teny, South Sudan’s Defense Minister said.

“It’s important that we address those issues holistically and not individually so that we create that professional armed force, that professional police, that professional security agents, so it’s a real challenge, the issue of logistics but the only way to address it is really to speedily graduate those forces.

The Defense Ministry says the soldiers in the training camps will graduate before the end of May and then be redeployed.

The government says the delay in redeploying the soldiers is due to the lack of required funds for the payment of salaries, provision of food and uniforms for the troops.

The UN Security Council is expected to review the arms embargo on South Sudan on May 31st.