The Security Council meets Friday to vote on a resolution granting expanded powers to peacekeepers requiring them to use “all necessary means” to protect United Nations personnel and installations and to take “proactive” measures to protect civilians from threats.
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A draft resolution sponsored by the U.S. on 8 August received 11 votes in favour, while Russia, China, Venezuela and Egypt declined to vote. It could confront South Sudanese government troops if needed.
The UN mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, has come under criticism for failing to protect civilians with its current 13,500 peacekeepers.
South Sudan criticized the resolution and said it would not cooperate.
This Security Council authorization follows weeks of insecurity in the South Sudan capital Juba and renewed violence against opposition leader Riek Machar.
But on Wednesday, Information Minister Michael Makuei said the force should be independent rather than under United Nations command.
The council authorised UNMISS and the protection force until December 15, 2016.
The UN resolution also calls for an arms embargo on South Sudan if the government blocks the regional force.
“This new resolution will be only a fig leaf of a solution unless diplomatic pressure is brought to bear on the government of South Sudan sufficient to convince it to co-operate with this new force”, he says.
Peter Wilson, British ambassador to the United Nations, said he was disappointed that the resolution did not include an immediate arms embargo on South Sudan, but he said Britain accepted the text in the spirit of compromise.
Only by doing so will the regional protection force truly achieve the goal to promote peace and stability in South Sudan and to create favorable conditions for implementation of a peace agreement of all parties, China’s Ambassador Liu Jieyi told the UN Security Council.
However, President Salva Kiir immediately objected to the deployment of forces on Friday. Last week, the government agreed to the force during a summit of the East African bloc IGAD. “We think that the time for introducing an arms embargo is now”, deputy British ambassador to the U.N. Peter Wilson said ahead of the vote. The U.S. -backed proposal “completely undoes the sovereignty of the Republic of South Sudan and we will just end up as a protectorate or a mandate of the United Nations”, he said.
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Kiir later replaced Machar as vice president and the rebel leader is now in hiding outside Juba, where he had returned in April to form the unity administration. He has refused to return to Juba unless more global troops are deployed. They signed a peace deal in August 2015, but implementation was slow and hard.
