UNITED NATIONS: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir raised concerns yesterday about UN peacekeepers focusing on protecting civilians amid renewed violence — as instructed by the UN Security Council — instead of state-building in the world’s newest nation.
Fighting erupted in South Sudan in December after months of tension sparked by Kiir’s decision to fire rival and former Vice President Riek Machar. Deep ethnic divisions have also fueled the violence, pitting Kiir’s Dinka people against Machar’s Nuer.
“My government would like to raise its concern regarding the recent mandate of UNMISS (the UN mission) which has serious implications in service delivery to my people,” Kiir told the 193-member United Nations General Assembly.
He complained that the UN mission was no longer helping the authorities of South Sudan, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011, with capacity building, peace-building, security sector reforms, recovery and development.
The UN Security Council authorised peacekeepers in May to give priority to the protection of civilians in decisions about the use of available capacity and resources within the mission.
The council doubled the number of peacekeepers in late December to 12,500 troops when fighting broke out.
Kiir asked the 15-member Security Council to reconsider the changes it made to the UN peacekeeping mission when it renews the mission at the end of November.
But UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said “now is not the time to think about building state institutions,” which he said often had ties to human rights violations.
“It has been abundantly clear since this crisis started that we could not continue with the original mandate of state building. We have to concentrate on alleviating the main consequences of the drama, that is to protect the civilians,” he told reporters yesterday after Kiir’s speech.
“We have to monitor human rights abuses and act upon them because there has been massive violations by all sides, including the government,” Ladsous said.
At least 10,000 people have been killed and more than 1.1 million displaced, with tens of thousands of civilians seeking shelter and protection at United Nations peacekeeping bases. The United Nations and aid agencies have accused both sides of ethnic-based massacres and grave human rights violations.
REUTERS
