"The result of the vote is as follows: 14 votes in favor, no votes against, one abstention", Gueguen said on Friday. "The draft resolution has been adopted as resolution 2459 of 2019". According to the text of the US-sponsored resolution, the United Nations will extend the presence of its good offices in South Sudan for another year to ensure peace and stability in the country.
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Russia abstained from voting on the extension of the mandate arguing that the text of the document undermines the importance of the Khartoum agreements while prioritizing other issues.
Last year, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir signed the peace agreement in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum with the former vice-president and rebel leader Riek Machar to end the civil war that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions of people since the beginning of the conflict.
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Shortly after gaining independence from Sudan and becoming the world’s newest independent nation, fighting erupted in South Sudan in December 2013. In more than five-years of ethnic-based fighting the Dinka tribal forces aligned with Kiir have battled rival Nuer tribal forces led by ousted Machar.