IV 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 467 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United Nations 
Security Council should immediately impose an arms embargo against 
the Government of South Sudan and all other parties to hostilities 
in South Sudan. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 20, 2017 
Mr. THOMAS J. ROONEY of Florida submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the United Nations Security Council should immediately 
impose an arms embargo against the Government of 
South Sudan and all other parties to hostilities in South 
Sudan. 
Whereas the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed on Jan-
uary 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 independ-
ence from Sudan; 
Whereas since the onset of the civil war in the Republic of 
South Sudan, in December 2013, more than 50,000 
South Sudanese citizens have been killed and 1,930,000 
have been internally displaced, including roughly 230,000 
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who have sought refuge at civilian protection sites estab-
lished by the United Nations Mission in the Republic of 
South Sudan (UNMISS); 
Whereas, in addition, 82 aid workers have been killed and 
more than 1,800,000 refugees from South Sudan have 
fled to neighboring countries to seek asylum; 
Whereas throughout the course of the civil war, both govern-
ment and opposition forces have been implicated in the 
recruitment of more than 17,000 child soldiers, and have 
been found culpable in other egregious human rights vio-
lations, including ethnically targeted rape and killing; 
Whereas, on February 20, 2017, famine was officially de-
clared in parts of South Sudan and the United States 
Agency for International Development estimates that by 
the peak lean season in July 2017, approximately 
5,500,000 people—nearly half the population—will be in 
Crisis (IPC 3) or higher levels of acute food insecurity; 
Whereas despite the Agreement on the Resolution of the Con-
flict 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 neigh-
borhoods and United Nations compounds; 
Whereas despite the Government of South Sudan, including 
President Salva Kiir, having made several public commit-
ments in recent months to allow unhindered humani-
tarian assistance, including in a joint communique with 
the United Nations Security Council in September 2016, 
the aid response continues to be obstructed, mainly by 
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the government’s armed forces, the Sudan People’s Lib-
eration Army (SPLA); 
Whereas in February 2016, SPLA troops attacked a civilian 
protection site established by UNMISS in Malakal, kill-
ing up to 65 people, injuring over 100, and displacing 
roughly 30,000, and the forces also burned down 3,700 
shelters across one-third of the site; 
Whereas in July 2016, violence initiated by the SPLA and 
forces from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army—In Op-
position (SPLA–IO) in Juba involved an attack in which 
SPLA forces fired over 50 rounds at an armored United 
States Embassy vehicle, an attack on the Terrain Hotel 
compound in which SPLA soldiers beat and raped foreign 
aid workers, reportedly targeting Americans, and other 
attacks on United Nations compounds and UNMISS ci-
vilian protection sites; 
Whereas the violence resulted in the deaths of 300 people, in-
cluding two United Nations peacekeepers and two em-
ployees of Doctors Without Borders; and 
Whereas the final report of the United Nations Panel of Ex-
perts on South Sudan which was extended pursuant to 
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2290 (2016) 
found that— 
(1) while the SPLA, the SPLA–IO, and other armed 
groups undertook military operations, including targeting 
of civilians, throughout 2016 and the first quarter of 
2017, by far the largest-scale campaigns have been 
planned and executed by the SPLA under the leadership 
of President Kiir; 
(2) these SPLA campaigns—in Upper Nile, Unity, 
Western Bahr el Ghazal, and Jonglei states as well as in 
Greater Equatoria—have followed a consistent tactical 
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pattern since the major government offensives in 2015 
and have been supported by heavy weapons such as Mi24 
attack helicopters, L–39 jets, and amphibious vehicles 
that the government has procured since the beginning of 
the war; 
(3) despite the scale and scope of the political, hu-
manitarian, and economic crises, the United Nations 
Panel of Experts on South Sudan continues to uncover 
evidence of the ongoing procurement of weapons by the 
SPLA, the National Security Service (NSS), and other 
associated forces and militias; and 
(4) the SPLA therefore remains the main belligerent 
in the war and continues to prioritize an aggressive mili-
tary approach over a political solution to the conflict: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) the United Nations Security Council should 
immediately impose an arms embargo against the 
Government of South Sudan to prevent the contin-
ued acquisition of arms and military equipment by 
both parties and the proliferation of weapons 
throughout the country, and to 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; 
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(B) committing other repeated violations of 
the status of forces agreement with the United 
Nations signed on August 8, 2011; 
(C) inhibiting the free movement of mem-
bers of the Ceasefire and Transitional Security 
Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism estab-
lished by the Agreement on the Resolution of 
the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan 
signed on August 17, 2015, which came into ef-
fect on August 26, 2015, who are tasked with 
monitoring and reporting violations of such 
Peace Agreement and verifying the demilitariza-
tion of Juba; and 
(D) obstructing humanitarian access to ci-
vilian populations in dire need of assistance; 
(2) the lifting of a United Nations arms embar-
go should be contingent upon the Government of 
South Sudan— 
(A) implementing a permanent ceasefire as 
called for in the Peace Agreement; 
(B) complying with its obligations under 
the status of forces agreement with the United 
Nations; 
(C) bearing the primary responsibility as a 
sovereign state to protect its citizens from gross 
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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) cooperating with and supporting the 
work of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation 
Commission established by the Peace Agree-
ment; 
(E) establishing 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) allowing for consistent, unimpeded hu-
manitarian access to vulnerable civilian popu-
lations; and 
(3) 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. 
Æ 
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