Her co-leader, Ambassador Fodé Seck of Senegal, emphasised that the Security Council resolution calling for additional troops to be deployed in Juba was based on respect for South Sudan’s sovereignty.
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The UN approved the deployment of 4,000 regional protection troops last month following renewed fighting that left 300 dead and displaced thousands from their homes.
The members of the United Nations Security Council and the Transitional Government of National Unity agreed to work in a fresh spirit of cooperation to advance the interests of the South Sudanese people, particularly their aspirations for justice, liberty, and prosperity.
The statement challenges the agreement reached by the visiting U.N. Security Council, which has threatened an arms embargo if turbulent South Sudan doesn’t comply. Ateny described it as a diplomatic victory for the government.
In the wake of deadly violence in Juba in mid-July between Kiir’s troops and soldiers loyal to opposition leader Riek Machar, the Security Council authorized a 4,000-strong regional protection force as part of the 12,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission already on the ground, known as UNMISS.
The 15-member council met with President Salva Kiir’s cabinet, religious and civil society leaders and visited two United Nations compounds in Juba where tens of thousands of civilians have been sheltering amid almost three years of violence.
A joint communique issued on Sunday indicates that the government is committed to remove impediments to the ability of UNMISS to implement its mandate.
JUBA South Sudan (Xinhua) – The UN refugee agency said on Friday that it has officially opened a new camp in South Sudan to provide better protection and services to refugees relocating from Yida settlement and new arrivals from the war-torn Nuba Mountains.
And not one South Sudanese that the delegation spoke to wants to live in these “Protection of Civilian” sites.
One of the diplomats told AFP on condition of anonymity that South Sudanese ministers “were surprised to see that the Security Council spoke with one voice” and that “They were surprised by the tone of Russian Federation, and also of China, which acted like someone who lost two peacekeepers”.
It would be recalled that South Sudan was plunged into violence in early July, just before the fifth anniversary of the country’s independence.
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“What we need to do now is move from those very important high-level commitments into working up the modalities in an operational way”, Ms Power said. Many analysts are also skeptical about any positive difference the additional peacekeeping forces could make pointing out that the troops did not intervene in the ethnic clashes that erupted in late 2011 and 2012 claiming hundreds of victims, including many children, right in their presence.
