South Sudan accepts UN peacekeepers with no conditions

JUBA / AP

South Sudan’s government has accepted with “no conditions” increase the peacekeeping force in the country as mandated by the U.N. Security Council in August, Minister of Cabinet Affairs Martin Lomuro told the Associated Press on Saturday.
“I expect them arrive at any time. The challenge is now on the U.N. to implement and fulfill their promises,” Lomuro said in an interview. The unanimous decision by South Sudan’s Cabinet ends a three-month limbo over whether the peacekeeping force could be increased and eliminates a potential showdown with the U.N. Security Council. South Sudan already has 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers.
The additional peacekeepers were ordered by the U.N. Security Council after fighting killed hundreds of people in the capital, Juba, in July, and set off fighting across the country.
But South Sudan argued that added peacekeepers would violate the country’s sovereignty. President Salva Kiir’s government said it needed to approve issues like the size of the force, the kind of weapons it will use, and which countries the troops will come from.
Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said that South Sudan’s unwillingness to allow the increased force to deploy was one of several ingredients that have created a “climate conducive to mass atrocities,” in the troubled East African nation. She said the U.S. would support an arms embargo on South Sudan and targeted sanctions on its political leaders, including a vocal critic of the regional force, Minister of Information Michael Makuei.