JUBA, April 2 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Tuesday criticized the decision by the United States to extend a so-called "national emergency" on the country for another year, saying it contradicts the ongoing positive momentum on peace implementation in the world world's youngest nation.
The extension of the "national emergency," last put in place in April 2014 by the U.S. administration, does not augur well with the ongoing peace implementation process, foreign ministry spokesman Mawien Makol Ariik told Xinhua.
"We are implementing peace and that (emergency) extension will not help," the spokesman said. "We are doing now what is required of us by the international community and the African Union."
"The extension of the 'national emergency' will not help peace efforts," he said in Juba.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday extended the "national emergency" on South Sudan, saying the situation "continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."
The "national emergency" on South Sudan was first declared by then U.S. president Barack Obama on April 3, 2014, a few months after the conflict began in Juba.
Under the measures contained in an executive order signed by Obama, the property of "certain persons with respect to South Sudan" are to be blocked.
Such individuals include persons "responsible for or complicit in... actions or policies" that "threaten the peace, security, or stability" of South Sudan; threaten transitional agreements or undermine "democratic processes or institutions in South Sudan."
A new deal signed by the warring sides in September 2018 is largely holding despite continued violence in the southern parts of South Sudan.
