The United States Treasury Department on Wednesday announced it has imposed sanctions on South Sudan’s first vice president, Taban Deng Gai, citing his involvement in serious human rights abuses, reported Reuters. The move is in line with Washington’s plan to pressure the country’s politicians to form a unity government.
Gai, former governor of an oil-rich region in South Sudan, has close ties to President Salva Kiir and has long been a powerful government figure in the country.
In a statement, the US Treasury Department asserted that Deng directed the alleged disappearance and deaths of human rights lawyer Samuel Dong Luak and opposition member Aggrey Idry in 2017 to solidify his position in the government and intimidate members of the opposition.
It also claimed that he has acted to divide the armed opposition in South Sudan, extending the country’s five-year civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people.
“Deng has acted to divide and sow distrust within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) and broader Nuer community, which has extended the conflict in South Sudan and deteriorated the reconciliation and peace process,” the statement read.
The sanctions have been implemented under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act that targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuses and corruption. It freezes any of Gai’s U.S. assets and generally prohibits people of the United States from doing business with him.
President Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar had signed a peace deal in 2018 to form the unity government by Nov 2019. But a few days before the deadline, the two leaders gave themselves an extension of 100 days to implement the agreement, a move criticized by the U.S.
Commenting on the sanctions, South Sudan’s presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny, told Reuters that the move will worsen the situation in the country.
The spokesman said Gai is very helpful in the implementation of the peace and that he should be encouraged. He added that there was no evidence that any government officials were involved in the killings cited by Treasury.
