A draft resolution was circulated to all 15 members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday and the text may be adopted within the next two weeks, a US official told reporters in New York. The official declined to identify which individuals may be blacklisted, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir on Aug. 17 refused to sign an accord with rebel leader Riek Machar to end fighting in the oil-producing nation. The government cited differences in opinion over the structure of the army, demilitarization and governance in the crude-rich Upper Nile state for Kiir’s failure to agree to the deal.
South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, has sub-Saharan Africa’s third-biggest oil reserves after Nigeria and Angola, according to BP Plc data. Violence has cut crude output by at least a third to about 165,000 barrels per day, the Petroleum Ministry said in May.
Mediators, seeking to end a war that’s left tens of thousands of people dead since December 2013, allowed Kiir 15 more days to hold consultations.
In a monthly lunch with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday, Security Council members agreed on the need for an arms embargo if Kiir failed to sign the agreement by the 15-day extension.
More than 2 million people have been displaced by the conflict and 4.6 million, almost half of the population, are facing severe food insecurity, according to the UN.