East Africa: Govt Rejects Regional Troop Deployment by UN

The South Sudan government says it rejects a draft resolution being circulated at the U.N. Security Council, calling for deployment of a regional protection force to Juba and other parts of the country wracked by violence.

The Juba government’s information minister, Michael Makuei, said such a force would be unacceptable if it is supervised by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and that it would undermine South Sudan’s sovereignty.

The United States has sponsored the draft resolution now being discussed at the Security Council in New York. Heads of state of the regional trade bloc IGAD, or Intergovernmental Authority on Development, have been meeting in Addis Ababa to discuss the proposed regional protection force.

In New York last week, the U.N. Security Council extended the mandate of the UNMISS force, which had been about to expire, until this Friday. IGAD heads of state and their partners are discussing modifying that mandate.

Among the topics under discussion is whether UNMISS should be empowered to prevent the direct or indirect supply or sale of arms and aircraft to either the government or the opposition forces fighting under the name of the SPLA (the Sudan People’s Liberation Army), the former military wing of the political party of the same name.

The New Times

UM– USEKE.RW