Sunday’s decision by President Salva Kiir, who in August rejected more peacekeepers, came a day after the 15-member Security Council visited the capital, Juba, to press senior officials for approval of the new force.
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US Ambassador to United Nations and head of the delegation, Samantha Power, said the 15-member delegation will also engage the government of South Sudan to implement a fragile peace pact signed in August 2015.
“I want to kill Dinkas because they make life hard for us”, he said, speaking through a translator.
Meanwhile, the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) under the leadership of Machar said they welcomed the message from the UN Security Council to force the “regime” to accept the deployment of the foreign troops.
According to Sunday’s joint statement, South Sudan has also committed to implementing a hybrid court to investigate war crimes. It threatened to consider an arms embargo if Kiir’s government did not cooperate.
Sudan and Uganda said they will not contribute to the regional protection, given their direct roles in the conflict. Samantha Power called Saturday for an independent commission to take testimony from rape victims of a rampage by South Sudanese soldiers at a hotel compound popular with foreigners in July.
The new force will boost a 12,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force (UNMISS) that has been on the ground since 2011.
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 council is due to meet with Kiir and his ministers over the weekend. “We need your help, we are exhausted”, said Peter Gatkuoth, 23, who has sheltered at the UN House site for several years. Many in South Sudan are skeptical of bringing in more.
Power also said that the delegation met with women who described huge surges in sexual violence against women who leave the camps to get firewood so that they can cook for their family and for their children.
Speaking to AFP later, Atanasyo said the regional force was badly needed as members of the president’s Dinka tribe were raping and killing people if they went into Wau. Oil producer South Sudan’s fledgling economy has been battered by the conflict, driving prices higher and leaving half the country’s 12 million people without enough food. “You accepted in principal the deployment”, he said.
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For several months, Martin has been living in a tarpaulin shelter with his mother, Terbi, seven brothers and two sisters in an area protected by United Nations peacekeepers after fleeing their home amid an eruption of violence between government forces and different ethnic groups.
