UN Security Council members vote during a session. (File photo/Courtesy).

 

The U.N. Security Council has extended the arms embargo and targeted sanctions on South Sudan by one year.

The arms embargo was renewed by a narrow margin that saw the approval of 10 out of the 15 council members, late on Thursday.

Meanwhile, five countries abstained from voting on the US drafted resolution. They are China, Russia, India, Gabon and Kenya.

The resolution was passed despite repeated calls by Juba to lift the arms embargo and sanctions.

The unity government has argued several times that its inability to buy guns has frustrated efforts to graduate the Unified Forces and curtail sub-national violence.

The government also believes the embargo has paralyzed law enforcement agencies and elevated the rise of ethnic militias across the county.

Shortly after the vote, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested the UN resolution.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs registers it’s displeasure against the resolution passed today by the United Nations Security Council,” read a statement of the foreign ministry.

“We therefore ask the UN Security Council member states to establish a co-open for the South Sudan file for greater fairness to the people of South Sudan who suffer under the cruelty of the UN sanctions and arms embargo,” the statement adds.

However, the U.N. panel of experts had recommended that the Security Council extend the arms embargo because of “persistent cease-fire violations” and intensifying violence in the country.

While presenting a report to the council, the panel stressed that conditions for millions of civilians “are getting worse.”

Meanwhile, Kenya’s deputy U.N. ambassador Michael Kiboino said his country abstained because the council didn’t lift the arms embargo and targeted sanctions as the AU and IGAD called for.

China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun also told the council that the young nation needs constructive support and pressure by sanctions.