UN Security Council must renew the arms embargo on South Sudan

Free access to weapons would only heighten the ongoing violence in the country.

Source: Tigere ChagutahAmnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

Published On 27 May 202527 May 2025

A fire burns following an aerial bombardment. — A fire burns following an aerial bombardment that resulted in casualties at the medical charity MSF-run facility, destroying the last remaining hospital and pharmacy in the northern town of Old Fangak, South Sudan on May 3, 2025 [Medecins Sans Frontieres/Handout via Reuters]

In 2015, as a civil war was raging in South Sudan, the United Nations Security Council imposed the first set of sanctions on the country, including asset freezes and travel bans on various senior officials. Three years later, after a ceasefire agreement was repeatedly violated, the UNSC mustered the votes to impose a full arms embargo. Fragile peace eventually settled in, but the embargo was kept in place and was extended every year.

The review of the embargo is now coming up on May 29 and there is a push from African members of the UNSC – Sierra Leone, Somalia and Algeria – to lift it. On March 18, the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) publicly called for this measure to end.