South Sudan’s Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Martin Elias Lomoro, said of the planned deployment: “We’re discussing the modalities”. “This deployment will be done in collaboration with the South Sudanese government,”There are already 12,000 United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan”.
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The South Sudanese government has given the go-ahead for the deployment of a 4,000 strong regional protection force recently mandated by the UN Security Council.
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.
US Ambassador Samantha Power said the meeting was “useful” because “we got to debunk, as the Security Council, some of the myths that have existed about what the Security Council has intended”.
Meanwhile, SPLM-IO spokesperson Manawa Peter Gatkuoth has welcomed the visit of the delegation of the UN Security Council and the consent of the government to the deployment of regional troops in South Sudan. The troops are to protect civilians in the South Sudanese capital, Juba.
In early July, close to the fifth anniversary of the country’s independence, the youngest nation was plunged into violence due to clashes between rival forces – the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), loyal to President Salva Kiir, and the SPLA in Opposition, backing former First Vice-President Riek Machar.
The South Sudan government opposes the proposed additional peacekeepers on the grounds that their mandate violates national sovereignty. “We are very concerned, and are appealing for parties to move back to the peace agreement”. “We can not put our nation on the right track alone”. He said he will only return to Juba if regional forces are deployed.
During their four-day visit, the council members are also expected to visit a United Nations camp in Juba where tens of thousands of South Sudanese have sheltered from the fighting.
“They want to go out”, he said, adding a protection force would restore security and allow people to go home.
Church leaders – both Catholic and Protestant – carry strong moral authority in Christian-majority South Sudan and bishops have played an important role in brokering past peace deals.
“Without the deployment of an effective third force, the antagonism among the various warring factions in South Sudan would continue, and none of these players are going to play by the rules”, Heitman told ANA. Tens of thousands of people have died.
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The violence led to deaths and injuries, including those of several UNMISS peacekeepers, and undermined the implementation of the peace agreement between President Kiir and Mr. Machar in August 2015, which formally ended their differences.
