Lomuro urges gov’t to graduate unified forces to ‘shame critics’
The Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Dr Martin Elia Lomuro, has advised that the government must ensure forces are graduated to put shame on the western powers that slapped sanctions on South Sudan and some of her leaders.
He cited lack of funds and the arms embargo as the major barriers to the graduation of forces, reiterating President Salva Kiir’s statement that they might even use sticks to graduate the forces if the arms embargo is not lifted.
“I think we have made our point clear that one of the impediments is lack of funds and because of the arms embargo.” But we are not going to halt the graduation of forces, we are going to move forward, even if we graduate them with sticks, it is better for us to do it and let those who sanctioned us and embargoed us feel ashamed,” Dr Elia said.
He stressed that the graduation of forces would strengthen security, which would pave the way for the general elections in 2023.
Lomuro, the Minister for Information, Michael Makuei Lueth; the Senior Presidential Advisor, Kuol Manyang Juuk, and other key government officials are on the list of South Sudan individuals who are sanctioned.
Limit foreign interference
The Sudanese Deputy Chairman of Transitional Sovereign Council, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, in the meeting of the presidency held on Wednesday, warned the government against allowing foreign interference in her internal affairs after they formed the unified army.
“Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the Deputy Chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Council, commended the Government of South Sudan for the tremendous progress made in the implementation of the Revitalised Peace Agreement,” read the statement from the office of the President.
“He emphasised that most of the tasks had been implemented, and urged the leadership of the South Sudanese government to have sovereign authority and decide how their national army should look like, and not allow too much foreign interference in their internal matters.”
The meeting of the presidency focused on the security arrangements and the graduation of forces where prior arrangements were to be made within a week including the timeline for the graduation of about 50,000 national unified forces.
Arms embargo imposed
The South Sudanese government was accused of not protecting civilians from killings, displacement, and rapes by armed groups and militias.
The UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan on July 13, 2018, stopping UN member states from supplying, selling, and transferring arms and ammunition, military vehicles, and spare parts to the country. It was to expire on May 31, 2021.
America accused
President Salva Kiir Mayardit has been pushing the UN Security Council for the withdrawal of sanctions against South Sudanese politicians and the arms embargo.
He had argued that the arms embargo was the major impediment to force unification and graduation.
Last year, the Lomuro accused the US government of targeting ministers allied to President Salva Kiir Mayardit, as a policy towards regime change.
This was after Lomuro’s Kenya bank accounts were frozen by the High Court of Kenya following a request from the Kenya Assets Recovery Agency. The minister was deprived of $460,000 on accusations of fake deals and money laundering.
The application read in part, “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the funds held by the respondent in the specified bank accounts are benefits, profits, and or proceeds of crime obtained from a complex money-laundering scheme and are liable to be forfeited to the state under the proceeds of crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2009,” the application read in part.
He appealed to the Kenyan government to declare their stance on the issue of targeted sanctions and an arms embargo imposed on South Sudan.
“This is a political case. You remember in December 2019 we were sanctioned, me and General Kual Manyang Juuk by the Americans, not the UN and you know the Americans want to change this regime, they want to change this government,” Lomuro said.
“And the Kenyan Assets Recovery Agency is using those sanctions.” So they are actually implementing the American sanctions. Technically speaking, the behaviour of the agency, which is like our anti-corruption agency here, means Kenya is underground implementing sanctions against South Sudan. “
The Kenyan government responded that they supported the peace process in South Sudan and were in support of the removal of the arms embargo and targeted sanctions against African nations.
