Attachments
The members of the Panel of Experts on South Sudan, whose mandate was extended pursuant to Security Council resolution 2353 (2017), have the honour to transmit herewith the Panel’s interim report, which was submitted in accordance with paragraph 2 of resolution 2353 (2017), by which the provisions of paragraph 12 (e) of resolution 2290 (2016) were renewed.
The report was provided to the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2206 (2015) on 27 October 2017.
The Panel would appreciate if the present letter and the report were brought to the attention of the members of the Security Council and issued as a document of the Council.
(Signed) Klem Ryan Coordinator Panel of Experts on South Sudan
(Signed) Andrews Atta-Asamoah Expert
(Signed) Andrei Kolmakov Expert
(Signed) Anna Oosterlinck Expert
(Signed) Colin Thomas-Jensen Expert
Summary Since the mandate of the Panel Experts on South Sudan was renewed in May 2017, fighting has continued in diverse locations around the country, with the consequences of the violence endured largely by civilians. Meanwhile, the economic situation continues to worsen, as various conflict actors move deeper into a “war economy”, wherein the extraction of resources (oil, gold and teak, inter alia) is carried out in the furtherance of, and in parallel to, military operations and the enrichment of elites. Those who can flee the violence continue to do so, leading to large flows of internally displaced persons and refugees, many of whom face extreme food insecurity, disease, family and community dissolution and disrupted education.
Despite the catastrophic conditions in South Sudan, armed forces, armed groups and militias, particularly those affiliated with the President, Salva Kiir, and the First Vice-President, Taban Deng Gai, continue to actively impede both humanitarian and peacekeeping operations. The foreseeable and, in the Panel’s assessment, intended consequence of those impediments is unequivocally clear: humanitarian aid and operations to protect civilians from violence are often unable to achieve their aims, resulting in a worsening humanitarian crisis in many areas. Specifically, the Panel finds that government forces have employed tactics to intentionally depopulate parts of Upper Nile and deliberately increase food insecurity in Bagari, near Wau.
Opposition to the Government has become increasingly diverse and widespread as the conflict has expanded to different parts of the country. Opposition groups lack access to significant military materiel, a factor that has been exploited by the Government during its military offensives in Jonglei and Upper Nile in 2017.
Diplomatic efforts by some regional States have intensified in recent months, in an attempt to advance the establishment of the high-level revitalization forum of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The aim of the forum is to resuscitate the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan of August 2015, following the collapse of the transitional government in July 2016. While IGAD has embarked on wide-ranging consultations with numerous stakeholders in South Sudan, the lack of political will on the part of the Government and some opposition groups is a significant obstacle to peace, especially when combined with underlying rivalries, competing interests and divergent preferences among regional States over how to resolve the conflict and deal with spoilers.
Absent a change in the current conflict dynamics, the coming dry season will see further fighting and civilian suffering, as the Government continues to pursue military victory over political compromise.