UN delegation in S.Sudan to push for protection force

By Parach Mach

JUBA, South Sudan

A UN Security Council delegation arrived in South Sudan Friday to lobby the government for deployment of a protection force in the troubled country, which has been gripped by civil war since late 2013.

"There really is no time to delay, given the acute humanitarian needs of the population and the insecurity that has plagued many parts of the country,” said the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, leading the delegation, after her arrival for a three-day visit.

Power said interference with the UN Mission in South Sudan must end, adding that attacking the UN helps nobody, but instead makes the UN a target and endangers South Sudanese civilians.

She also stressed that the UN Security Council needs to see progress on deployment of a regional protection force, lifting hurdles to humanitarian actors such as the UN mission, and progress in political consensus, which is the foundation of stability in South Sudan.

The visit, co-led by Senegal’s UN Ambassador Fode Seck, comes amid differences between the South Sudanese government and the international community on the UN resolution passed last month to send 4,000 additional peacekeepers to protect the capital, Juba.

Their stay will include visits to the UN camps that currently accommodate hundreds of thousands of civilians within the capital as well as other parts of the country.

United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) spokeswoman Shantal Persuad said in a statement that the visit will reiterate the Security Council’s full support and commitment to seeing an end to the violence in South Sudan, and a return to full implementation of the August 2015 peace agreement, so that the country can begin to recover from years of conflict and alleviate the people’s suffering.

Persuad said the UN is troubled by the widespread violence in the country, adding that the magnitude of the suffering on the South Sudanese people is worrying.

“They are troubled by the ongoing widespread violence and the dire impact on the humanitarian level,” she said.

“They want to use this visit to engage with the Transitional government of National Unity and also meet with the civil society groups, and that include women representatives basically to hear their views about the next steps from various communities,” she added.

South Sudan has been consumed by brutal violence that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and displaced 2.4 million from their homes.

A power-sharing unity government seeking to end almost three years of civil war characterized by human rights abuses and atrocities was put in place this April between President Salva Kiir and ex-rebel leader Riek Machar, before fighting flared anew and Machar fled the country.