The Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) which oversees the 2015 South Sudanese peace deal has returned to the capital Juba after it moved to Addis Ababa during the fighting.
Advertisement
South Sudan’s government has accepted the deployment of a 4,000-strong regional protection force recently mandated by the United Nations Security Council, in addition to the roughly 12,000 UN peacekeepers already serving in the African nation.
Protecting civilians has become a critical issue for United Nations peacekeepers following fighting that erupted in Juba in July between forces loyal to Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar, threatening to send the world’s youngest country back to all-out civil war.
Facing intense global pressure, war-ravaged South Sudan on Sunday agreed to the deployment of a 4,000-member regional protection force approved last month by the United Nations Security Council.
Monday’s 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.
South Sudan has witnessed a new wave of conflict since July 8, when gunfire erupted near the state house in Juba as Kiir and then Vice President Riek Machar were holding a meeting.
Around 12,000 United Nations peacekeepers operate in South Sudan. The upsurge threatened a fragile peace accord signed a year ago to end a devastating 18-month civil war which left tens of thousands dead. Security Council continued a rare visit to the country on the brink of renewed civil war.
South Sudan’s transitional government agreed to allow 4,000 extra peacekeeping troops to enter the country on Thursday evening after three days of talks with United Nations diplomats about the security situation of the country that is situated in east Africa.
He also said President Kiir’s government is a “failed leadership” which has turned against its own citizens, arguing that it was important the people should be temporarily protected by foreign forces from “this irresponsible government” until the needed change is effected in the country. “They agreed that the humanitarian and security needs of the people were paramount”, said the communique.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but slid into civil war in 2013 after Kiir sacked Machar as his vice president.
The Security Council delegation visited a camp housing people, mostly of Machar’s Nuer ethnicity, who fled the bloody fighting.
Church leaders carry strong moral authority in Christian-majority South Sudan.
Advertisement
An estimated 16,000 children have been recruited by armed groups and the national army in the conflict, and 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes.
