Nairobi--South Sudan's floundering peace talks are being undermined by the economic interests of the regional states leading the process, an advocacy group warned Wednesday.
A report from the US-based Enough Project said neighbouring Sudan and Uganda were among those frustrating efforts to impose "targeted sanctions" seen as a priority to stop the fighting.
"Willingness to take action on South Sudan has been undermined by a web of political and economic relationships linking regional elites' interests to those of South Sudanese politicians," said the report.
A lack of action at the regional level has left "funding flows for the conflict mostly untouched", the Enough Project said.
Asset freezes, travel bans and an arms embargo have not been effectively imposed either regionally or internationally, meaning the cost of continued conflict in South Sudan is not borne by the country's warring leaders -- but instead by its suffering civilians.
Civil war began in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of planning a coup.
The conflict was immediately ethnic, pitting Kiir's Dinka people against Machar's Nuer, and quickly spread. It has been characterised by ethnic massacres, rape and the use of child soldiers. A fifth of the population has been uprooted and nearly half face starvation.
AFP
