Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Bates on 23 February (HL Deb, col 411), whether they intend to ask the UN Security Council to reconsider imposing an arms embargo on South Sudan.

An EU-wide arms embargo is already in place on South Sudan, and the UK has long called for the imposition of a UN arms embargo. We were therefore extremely disappointed that the US-led resolution imposing an arms embargo on South Sudan and targeted sanctions against those who continue to block the path to peace did not pass in the UN Security Council in December 2016. An arms embargo would help disrupt flows of heavy weaponry and ammunition; fewer weapons in South Sudan would have saved lives. We will continue to lobby on this issue.