It’s been exactly one year since two opposing sides within the South Sudanese Government signed a peace agreement, pledging to establish a hybrid court and take other steps to end violent clashes and human rights abuses. But still the violence and grave human rights abuses continue.
Human Rights Watch reports that just last month, during and after a clash between opposition forces in Juba, soldiers looted property and humanitarian supplies and killed and raped civilians, appearing to target non-Dinka civilians. After investigating. HRW found most of the crimes were committed by soldiers from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
Despite the scale, horror and veracity of the violence a UN commissioner called "some of the most horrendous human rights abuses in the world," the UN continues to delay what HRW sees as a long overdue weapons embargo.
In an opinion piece in Time Magazine, actor and Oxfam Ambassador Djimon Hounsou says “direct engagement from President Obama could make all the difference," that there is a lot the US can do to help lead to a lasting peace in Sudan. But Hounsou agrees with HRW that this work must begin with a weapons embargo.
Civilians in the Sudan - men, women in children - desperately need protection from these unchecked violent attacks. Sign to ask President Obama to impose an immediate ban on all US weapons sales to South Sudan and personally urge the UN Security Council to enact an arms sale ban too.
To President Obama:
No one who is made aware of he situation in South Sudan can disagree that civilians, and especially women and female children are being subjected to "some of the most horrendous human rights abuses in the world."
According to a BBC report, the UN says soldiers have been allowed to abduct and rape women and children as a reward for fighting. Many of these rape victims are then brutally killed, along with husbands and fathers.
Djimon Hounsou says that even though the people he has met in South Sudan are "incredibly resilient," they are losing hope that their leaders can get them through this crisis without intervention from the international community.
Because Human Rights Watch and others who have a good understanding of the situation in South Sudan believe peace must begin with a weapons embargo, I, the undersigned, join them in urging you to exert your influence over the UN Security Council to join the US in imposing an immediate ban on weapon sales to South Sudan.
Thanks for your immediate attention to this urgent request.
