Biden Extends State Of Emergency With Respect To South Sudan - White House

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th March, 2021) US President Joe Biden has extended an existing national emergency declaration with respect to South Sudan because activities there continue to pose a threat to the United States, the White House announced in a release on Monday.

"The situation in and in relation to South Sudan continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, the national emergency declared on April 3, 2014, must continue in effect beyond April 3, 2021," the release said. "Therefore... I am continuing for one year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13664."

The situation in South Sudan is characterized with widespread violence and atrocities, human rights abuses, recruitment and use of child soldiers, attacks on peacekeepers and humanitarian workers and obstruction of humanitarian operations, the release also said.

In July, South Sudan will mark ten years of independence from Sudan. The country has been engulfed in a civil war between the government of President Salva Kiir and the opposition since 2013. Some 400,000 people have been killed during the conflict while more than four million have been displaced, according to the United Nations.

In September 2018, Kiir signed a peace agreement with rebel leader Riek Machar, after which the Transitional Government of National Unity was formed in February last year.