The UN Security Council on Friday extended for one year the arms embargo imposed on South Sudan since 2018, with a clause providing for a review of its relevance in April 2022.

Written by the United States, the draft resolution extending the embargo until May 31, 2022 was adopted by 13 votes in favor on the 15-member panel, according to diplomats. India and Kenya abstained.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long called for the renewal of the arms embargo.

It is "essential for South Sudan's civilians, given the widespread human rights abuses and increasing violence on the ground," Human Rights Watch said.

The resolution said the Security Council had "deep concern at continued fighting in South Sudan" and condemned "repeated violations" of agreements on cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians and humanitarian access.

The text said the Council was "strongly condemning past and ongoing human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law," as well as "harassment and targeting of civil society, humanitarian personnel and journalists."

The Security Council "expresses its readiness to review arms embargo measures, through inter alia modification, suspension, or progressive lifting of these measures, in the light of progress achieved" on key objectives listed in the resolution.

They include a restructuring of defense and security forces, the implementation of a disarmament program, demobilization and reintegration of combatants and a reform of armament and ammunition stockpile management.

The resolution asks the UN Secretary-General and South Sudanese authorities to report on progress on these points by mid-April 2022.

The Security Council called on UN member countries, in particular countries of the region, to fully apply the arms embargo, carrying out seizures and destroying illicit arms if necessary.

Targeted individual sanctions in force are also renewed until May 31, 2022, with the Council warning that it retains the ability to add more names to the blacklist.

South Sudan suffered through six years of civil war that claimed some 380,000 lives. It officially ended with the creation of a government of national unity in February 2020.

Russia insists CAfrica 'instructors' are unarmed
United Nations, United States (AFP) May 28, 2021 - Six hundred Russian soldiers requested by the Central African Republic this month are "unarmed instructors," Moscow's deputy ambassador to the United Nations said Friday.

"They are not armed because they are not supposed to be armed. They are instructors," Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters, adding that he did not know if the soldiers had already arrived.

Moscow has since 2018 maintained a contingent of soldiers to train the Central African army.

Prior to the latest contingent, Moscow had only acknowledged the presence of 535 Russian instructors in CAR, under contract with the Central African defense ministry.

CAR notified the UN Security Council on May 4 that it intended to welcome 600 new instructors. It is obliged to give 20 days' notice under the latest arms embargo on the country.

Diplomats say that France, Estonia, Ireland, Britain and the United States have put the sanctions committee's response on hold indefinitely in order to obtain more information.

But that does not prevent Russia from deploying the soldiers after the notice period expired on Monday, according to the diplomats.

"They might deal with some armaments when they instruct people but they are not supposed to fight," said Polyanskiy.

Numerous witnesses and NGOs say the instructors are in fact paramilitaries from the Wagner Group, a shadowy private military company that is actively participating in the fight against CAR rebels, alongside Rwandan special forces and UN peacekeepers.

French daily Le Monde claimed this week that Russia and CAR had stopped all military coordination with the peacekeepers since February.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN's under-secretary for peace operations, said UN peacekeepers had encountered difficulties with CAR's military and its partners, without giving further information.

"It is essential to have a certain consultation, a coordination," he said, adding that he would visit CAR next week.

The nation of 4.7 million has been gripped by civil war since a coalition of armed groups overthrew the government in 2013.

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Nigeria appoints new army chief
Abuja (AFP) May 27, 2021
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari appointed a new chief of army staff on Thursday after the previous top-ranking commander and 10 other officers died in a plane crash last week. It was the third air disaster this year for the military, which is fighting a decade-long jihadist insurgency in the northeast, kidnap gangs in the northwest and separatist violence in the southeast. "President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Major General Farouk Yahaya as the new Chief of Army Staff," defence spokesma ... read more