Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has imposed its first sanctions on South Sudan which has been battling rebels reportedly armed and funded by Sudan’s regime in deals with Iran and China.

[See also: Sudan supplying fighters against South Sudan in arms for oil deal with Iran, China]

The administration of President Barack Obama has designated rival military commanders in South Sudan. The sanctions targeted the commander of South Sudan’s Presidential Guard, Marial Mangok, and rebel leader Peter Gadet amid a civil war that has been ranging for five months.

“We will do our utmost to prevent South Sudan from plunging back towards
violence and despair,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. “We will hold accountable those who have stood in the way of a peace plan.”

The sanctions, announced on May 6, came after Kerry failed to restore a ceasefire reached in January 2014. The regime of President Salva Kiir has been battling rebels led by his former vice president, Riek Machar, particularly for control of South Sudan’s oil-rich sector. On May 7, the Kiir regime announced a month-long ceasefire to facilitate peace talks.

Officials said Mangok led the Presidential Guard in operations against
the rebels in Juba. They said Gadet was responsible for the killing of more
than 200 civilians in the oil capital of Bentiu.

“They’re two individuals that we think are fairly significant, both of
whom have blood on their hands with respect to the activities that they have
directed or conducted,” a senior administration official said.

Officials said President Barack Obama signed an executive order in April
that granted the administration the authority to target both commanders as
well as suppliers of the civil war. They said both sides were trying to stop
humanitarian supplies as well as peace-keeping operations by the United
Nations.

The sanctions were meant to freeze assets of Gadet and Mangok in the
United States as well as stop Americans from dealing with the two. Officials
acknowledged they did not know whether either South Sudanese commander held
assets in the United States.

“We don’t have perfect transparency, of course, into where assets may be
held or where they be moved,” the official said. “But as of today, the
moment of designation, we’re not identifying the assets of blocked
individuals and we don’t traditionally identify how much has been blocked
under an individual’s name.”

  John Kerry, Marial Mangok, Peter Gadet, Reik Machar, Salva Kiir, U.S. sanctions both South Sudan and Sudan-backed rebels