I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5996 
To provide United States support for the full implementation of the Agree-
ment on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 12, 2016 
Mr. ROONEY of Florida (for himself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. CAPU-
ANO, and Mr. ENGEL) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee 
on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To provide United States support for the full implementation 
of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in 
the Republic of South Sudan, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Halt Arms and Pro-
mote Peace in South Sudan Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) The Comprehensive Peace Agreement 
signed on January 9, 2005, provided the framework 
for a referendum to determine the status of southern 
Sudan in 2011, in which approximately 99 percent 
of voters chose independence from Sudan. 
(2) Since the onset of the civil war in the Re-
public of South Sudan, in December 2013, more 
than 50,000 South Sudanese citizens have been 
killed and 1,800,000 have been internally displaced, 
including roughly 200,000 who have sought refuge 
at civilian protection sites established by the United 
Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan 
(UNMISS). More than 920,000 refugees from South 
Sudan have fled to neighboring countries to seek 
asylum. 
(3) Throughout the course of the civil war, both 
government and opposition forces have been impli-
cated in the recruitment of more than 16,000 child 
soldiers, and have been found culpable in other egre-
gious human rights violations, including ethnically 
targeted rape and killing. 
(4) According to recent figures from the United 
Nations and from the Famine Early Warning Sys-
tems Network led by the United States Agency for 
International Development, 4,800,000 people in 
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South Sudan are experiencing crisis-level food inse-
curity, and a quarter of a million children are facing 
severe malnutrition. Emergency acute food insecu-
rity is widespread in parts of the Greater Upper Nile 
and Greater Bahr el Ghazal regions of South Sudan, 
while some households in Northern Bahr el Ghazal 
are on the brink of famine. 
(5) Since December 2013, 59 aid workers have 
been killed in South Sudan. Despite the Agreement 
on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of 
South Sudan signed on August 17, 2015, which 
came into effect on August 26, 2015, violent clashes 
employing tanks, helicopter gunships, and heavy 
weaponry have continued throughout the country 
that routinely and indiscriminately affect civilian 
neighborhoods and United Nations compounds. 
(6) In February 2016, forces from the Sudan 
People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) attacked a civil-
ian protection site established by UNMISS in 
Malakal, killing up to 65 people, injuring over 100, 
and displacing roughly 30,000. The forces also 
burned down 3,700 shelters across one-third of the 
site. A report by the United Nations Headquarters 
Board of Inquiry later found that UNMISS failed to 
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prepare for or mitigate the attack and failed at all 
levels to manage the crisis effectively. 
(7) In July 2016, violence initiated by SPLA 
forces and forces from the Sudan People’s Libera-
tion Army-In-Opposition (SPLA–IO) in Juba in-
volved an attack in which SPLA forces fired over 50 
rounds at an armored United States embassy vehi-
cle, an attack on the Terrain compound in which 
SPLA soldiers sexually assaulted, beat, and raped 
aid workers, reportedly targeting Americans, and 
other attacks on United Nations compounds and 
UNMISS civilan protection sites. The violence re-
sulted in the deaths of 300 people, including two 
United Nations peacekeepers and two employees of 
Doctors Without Borders. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) the international community should con-
tinue to support civilians, particularly women and 
children, who have been adversely affected by the 
civil war in South Sudan and should promote peace 
and reconciliation dialogues within local civil society; 
(2) it is imperative that African countries and 
institutions, including the Intergovernmental Au-
thority on Development, the Peace and Security 
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Council of the African Union, and the African Union 
Commission, are united and firm in enforcing the 
terms of the Agreement on the Resolution of the 
Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (‘‘Peace 
Agreement’’) signed on August 17, 2015, which 
came into effect on August 26, 2015; 
(3) the United Nations Security Council should 
hold the Government of South Sudan accountable 
for— 
(A) obstructing or constraining the oper-
ations of the United Nations Mission in the Re-
public of South Sudan (UNMISS), including by 
restricting the transportation of wounded 
United Nations peacekeepers; 
(B) committing other repeated violations of 
the status of forces agreement with the United 
Nations signed on August 8, 2011; and 
(C) inhibiting the free movement of mem-
bers of the Ceasefire and Transitional Security 
Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism estab-
lished by the Peace Agreement, who are tasked 
with monitoring and reporting violations of the 
Peace Agreement and verifying the demilitariza-
tion of Juba; 
(4) the Government of South Sudan should— 
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(A) implement a permanent ceasefire as 
called for in the Peace Agreement; 
(B) comply with its obligations under the 
status of forces agreement with the United Na-
tions; 
(C) bear the primary responsibility as a 
sovereign state to protect its citizens from gross 
human rights abuses and forced displacement 
perpetrated by the warring parties, including 
the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) 
and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-In- 
Opposition (SPLA–IO); 
(D) cooperate and support the work of the 
Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission 
established by the Peace Agreement; 
(E) establish the Commission for Truth, 
Reconciliation, and Healing, the Hybrid Court 
for South Sudan, and the Compensation and 
Reparation Authority, as called for in the Peace 
Agreement; and 
(F) adhere to the ‘‘Communique of the 
55th Extra-Ordinary Session of the IGAD 
Council of Ministers’’, issued by the Intergov-
ernmental Authority on Development, which 
urges the parties, ‘‘in the absence of an agree-
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ment on the creation of new states, to suspend 
further 
action 
on 
implementing 
the 
operationalization of new states until an inclu-
sive, participatory National Boundary Commis-
sion . . . reviews proposed states and their 
boundaries’’; 
(5) any person who committed gross violations 
of human rights, war crimes, or crimes against hu-
manity in the course of the hostilities, as docu-
mented in reports from credible domestic or inter-
national bodies, should be held accountable in trans-
parent legal proceedings and should not be able to 
hold office or positions in the Government of South 
Sudan or as part of any power sharing agreement; 
(6) given the culpability of the SPLA and the 
SPLA–IO in the July 2016 attacks in Juba, during 
which both parties used a variety of weapons (in-
cluding 
battle 
tanks 
and 
helicopter 
gunships 
equipped with unguided rockets used by SPLA 
forces) in densely populated areas and in close prox-
imity to United Nations compounds and civilian pro-
tection sites, the current transitional security ar-
rangements should be reevaluated and revised to 
prioritize the demilitarization of Juba and to miti-
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gate the risk of any future harm to civilians by secu-
rity forces; 
(7) the failure to impose an international arms 
embargo on South Sudan has resulted in the contin-
ued acquisition of arms and military equipment by 
both parties and the proliferation of weapons 
throughout the country, and in order to create con-
ditions for the successful implementation of the 
Peace Agreement and to prevent further violence 
and human suffering, the United States should lead 
the international community, particularly allies such 
as Australia and the European Union, in imme-
diately implementing an arms embargo to prevent 
the supply, sale, or transfer to any party to hos-
tilities in South Sudan of arms, weapons, or related 
material (including non-lethal equipment intended, 
or altered by a third party, for military use); 
(8) pursuant to United Nations Security Coun-
cil Resolution 2206 (2015) and Executive Order 
13664 (50 U.S.C. 1701 note), the United States 
should immediately impose targeted economic sanc-
tions, travel limitations, and asset freezes on senior 
officials of the Government of South Sudan and offi-
cials throughout the chain of command, who have— 
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(A) neglected to abide by the terms of the 
Peace Agreement; 
(B) violated the ceasefire; 
(C) threatened the peace, security or sta-
bility of South Sudan; or 
(D) failed to cause forces under their di-
rect or indirect control to cease military oper-
ations, acts of violence, human rights violations 
or abuses, or violations of international humani-
tarian law; 
(9) given the investment of United States re-
sources in the success of South Sudan, including 
more than $1,700,000,000 in humanitarian assist-
ance since December 2013, it is incumbent on the 
United States to take all necessary actions to help 
prevent further violence and restore a lasting polit-
ical and social order in South Sudan; and 
(10) the United States should complement the 
work of the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees, the United Nations Office for the Coordi-
nation of Humanitarian Affairs, UNMISS, and 
other relevant international partners, to provide for 
the protection of civilians and assist displaced per-
sons to return home and to provide information to 
communities in order for such displaced persons to 
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