Juba initially rejected the proposal, which was offered earlier in the month, stating that it lends the United Nations the ability to govern and “seriously undermines” South Sudan’s sovereignty.
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The Sudan Tribune reported on Sunday that South Sudan President Salva Kiir had accepted the deployment of the soldiers, authorised by the UN Security Council (UNSC), after previously threatening that any additional foreign soldiers on South Sudan territory would be considered a legitimate target for military attack.
Speaking after the meeting between President Kiir and the UN Security Council delegation, the cabinet affairs minister Martin Elia Lomoro said finer details of the deployment are still being worked on.
Former vice president and rebel leader Machar is undergoing medical treatment in Khartoum after being chased from South Sudan’s capital in July by forces loyal to President Salva Kiir.
A delegation from the UN Security Council has met with Internally Displaced People (IDP) living in South Sudan camps to get first-hand information of their plights.
The US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power insisted as she arrived in Juba that 4,000 additional African peacekeepers were needed.
The US envoy stated: “We heard appeals for the peace agreement to be fully implemented”. “We can not put our nation on the right track alone”.
United Nations peacekeepers stationed in the capital Juba have been accused of failing to prevent the violence.
Nearly 6 million people “are facing a severe hunger crisis” there, Catholic Relief Services reports.
However, she added, we are here unfortunately not in a celebratory frame of mind because of our deep concern about the fighting that has degraded the security environment and that has exacerbated a devastating humanitarian crisis for the people of this country. But after renewed fighting at the start of July, Machar fled the country and said he was being targeted by Kiir’s troops.
The assurances were offered at a news conference in Juba as a Security Council delegation started a four-day visit to the turbulent country at the weekend. South Sudan would need to know what countries would be contributing troops, how long the soldiers would remain in the country and what weapons they would have.
But in December 2013, South Sudan erupted into a civil war between Kiir and Machar, who had been vice president.
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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. Tens of thousands of people have died.
