United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) peacekeepers stand guard
at an entrance to the Tongping UNMISS base in Juba. The UN Security
Council has extended the Mission's mandate to November 30, 2014. AFP
PHOTO/PHIL MOORE
By JOINT REPORT The EastAfrican
In Summary
- A resolution adopted by the Council instructs Unmiss to focus on protecting civilians rather than helping build state institutions in South Sudan.
- Council specifies that Unmiss is to protect “areas at high risk of conflict including schools, places of worship, hospitals and the oil installations, in particular when the South Sudan government is unable or failing to provide such security.”
The 2,500 Kenyan and Ethiopian troops soon to be
sent to South Sudan under United Nations auspices may face challenges
from rebel forces, an opposition spokesman warned last week.
“By stepping in to protect oil installations on
behalf of the government, UN military mission in South Sudan (Unmiss)
will have sided with one of the parties to the conflict and inevitably
become part of the problem, not solution,” said a statement issued by
Lul Ruai Koang, a spokesman for South Sudan’s armed opposition.
He was responding to the Security Council’s
decision last week to broaden the mandate of the Unmiss and increase its
size substantially with troops from neighbouring countries under the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad).
A resolution adopted by the Council instructs
Unmiss to focus on protecting civilians rather than helping build state
institutions in South Sudan.
The Council specifies that Unmiss is to protect
“areas at high risk of conflict including schools, places of worship,
hospitals and the oil installations, in particular when the South Sudan
government is unable or failing to provide such security.”
The Council extended a plan it adopted in December
to add 5,500 soldiers to the 7,000-member Unmiss force to make it a
12,500-strong force.
UN peacekeeping officials have only been able to
muster about half of those additional troops from operations elsewhere
in Africa, so they have turned instead to Igad to help bring about the
planned military surge in South Sudan.
On Thursday, Igad executive secretary Mahboub Maalim told The EastAfrican
that plans were going on well but admitted the intended time of
deployment has already elapsed. This has been blamed on bureaucracy and
budgetary requirements on the part of Igad.
“The instructions we had were that we do that in
mid-April. So we are a little bit out of schedule for obvious reasons,”
he said in an interview in Nairobi.
“We are initially limiting it to members of Igad
plus member states of the East African Community. We hope to have
contributions from Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Burundi for example,”
he added.
The Igad diplomat said the bloc will initially
contribute a total of 3,000 soldiers. Their role will depend on what the
UN prescribes for them but it will generally include protecting
civilians and humanitarian workers, as well as the monitoring and
verification teams, which Igad has sent to South Sudan to inspect the
key principles of the cessation of hostilities deal reached earlier in
May.
“We think this is going to be very nominal. I
can’t tell you the budget right now simply because you have to
understand deploying troops is a very expensive venture. But basically
we do think that this is going to be done through the United Nations and
we have already got in touch with the UN Security Council. Recently, we
had a team from the Department of Peace Keeping, who are in agreement
with us on how to spell this out,” said Mr Maalim.
Igad intends to deploy several hundred Ethiopian
troops in the next two weeks, Herve Ladsous, the head of the UN
peacekeeping department, said last week.
“A supplement of Kenyan troops” will be made available through Igad as well, Mr Ladsous added.
Rwandan soldiers are being redeployed to South
Sudan from the UN mission in Darfur, he said. And in what amounts to a
historic initiative, a battalion of Chinese troops will be taking up
positions in South Sudan “later,” the UN peacekeeping chief said
“A supplement of Kenyan troops” will be made available through Igad as well, Mr Ladsous added.
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