UNITED NATIONS — The divided U.N. Security Council voted Thursday to extend an arms embargo on South Sudan despite appeals from the world's newest nation, the African Union and half a dozen countries including Russia and China to lift or at least ease the restrictive measure.
The U.S.-sponsored resolution got the minimum nine ''yes'' votes in the 15-member council, with six countries abstaining – Russia, China, Mozambique, Algeria, Sierra Leone and Guyana.
The resolution also extends travel bans and asset freezes on South Sudanese on the U.N. sanctions blacklist until May 31, 2025.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood welcomed the resolution's adoption saying extending the U.N. arms embargo ''remains necessary to stem the unfettered flow of weapons into a region awash with guns.''
But Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Anna Evstigneeva accused the United States of ignoring all the positive achievements in South Sudan and focusing on sanctions ''which they present as a sort of panacea for all of the country's problems.''
She called the sanctions ''burdensome,'' noted calls for their lifting from South Sudan and the African Union, and said: ''It is clear that at this stage, many of the Council sanctions regimes including South Sudan's are outdated and need to be reviewed.''
South Sudan's U.N. ambassador Cecilia Adeng told the council that sanctions ''impede our progress'' and reiterated the country's call for the measures to be lifted. Eliminating the arms embargo ''will enable us to build robust security institutions necessary for maintaining peace and protecting our citizens,'' she said.
There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict. But the country slid into a civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions when forces loyal to the current president, Salva Kiir, battled those loyal to the current vice president, Riek Machar.
