A statement from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the new camp in Pamir, some 80 km south of the contested border with Sudan, is ready to accommodate up to 20,000 people at the moment.
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The rare visit focuses on the council’s decision to deploy the peacekeepers with a strengthened mandate to protect civilians after reports of rapes and attacks by government troops.
I hope the Council will be interested to hear, both from us and from the government about the progress we have made through our discussions, in particular, on the deployment of the regional protection force for Juba, Lj said.
The council authorized the new force following several days of heavy fighting involving tanks and helicopters in Juba in July between troops loyal to Kiir and those backing former Vice President Riek Machar. The council ambassadors are due to meet with African Union officials in Ethiopia on Monday. Thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced by the conflict.
Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and head of the Security Council delegation, said the visit to South Sudan has been successful, urging the government to commit to its promise of ending sexual violence against girls and women.
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. “They agreed that the humanitarian and security needs of the people were paramount”, said the communique.
“They are troubled by the ongoing widespread violence and the dire impact on the humanitarian level”, she said. “That’s one of the reasons why a regional protection force is so necessary because so much of UNMISS’s resources is devoted to protecting civilians in the camps”, Deputy British UN Ambassador Peter Wilson told reporters.
“The transitional government of national unity gives its consent for the deployment of the regional force”, said Martin Elia Lomoro, South Sudan’s minister of cabinet affairs, on Sunday, reading out a joint statement from the United Nations and the government.
National sovereignty is paramount for our countries, he said, emphasizing that the United Nations can not impose the deployment.
Kiir had previously said that the deployment of the peacekeeping force was a violation of South Sudan’s sovereignty.
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The Transitional Government of National Unity of South Sudan expressed its determination to implement the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, in particular the reform agenda, now that the Transitional National Legislative Assembly is in place.
