Promoting Accountability for Undermining a Sustainable Peace by Obstructing Humanitarian Aid in South Sudan

The Department of State is taking steps today to impose visa restrictions on individuals responsible for, or complicit in, undermining and impeding a sustainable peace in South Sudan. These individuals, who include members of the South Sudanese government, participated in obstructing life-saving humanitarian aid through the taxation of aid shipments. These persons may be found ineligible for entry into the United States.

The United States remains deeply concerned about the South Sudan transitional government's failure to act with urgency to establish a clear and consistent system for full implementation of its obligations under the 2018 peace agreement, in particular, its obligation to create an enabling political, administrative, operational, and legal environment for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and protection. Despite assurances, the government has yet to effectively reduce the unacceptably high costs, bureaucratic obstacles, and risks of providing humanitarian assistance to South Sudanese people in need. This raises questions about its willingness and capacity to abide by its 2018 peace agreement commitment to create an enabling environment for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and protection.

The Department of State's steps to impose visa restrictions were taken pursuant to Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, under a policy announced in 2019.