3 September
2016 – On the second day of its visit to South Sudan, a delegation from the
United Nations Security Council met with displaced people living in
camps, known as “protection of civilians” sites, seeing first-hand “the human
consequences of the
failure of political leaders to bring peace back to their
country.”
“We heard
desperate appeals for the Regional Protection Force to be deployed quickly,”
United States Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters, referring to the
4,000-strong force approved in a Security Council resolution that also renewed
the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
The Security
Council delegation is led by the Permanent Representatives of the Missions of
Senegal and the United States, and also comprises representatives of all the
other permanent and rotating member states of the 15-member body.
“We heard
appeals for the peace agreement to be fully implemented, people in these camps
feels as if the political agreement that was agreed to remains the last best
hope for them and we heard appeals for the UN peacekeeping presence to be more
active, to patrol, to offer the protection that people are afraid that security
forces for the government don't offer at this time,” Ms. Power added.
At the
sites, she said, the delegation met many people who could recount bullets
flying over their head in the crossfire of the crises that occurred about two
months ago.
In early
July, close to the fifth anniversary of the country's independence, the
youngest nation was plunged into violence due to clashes between rival forces –
the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), loyal to President Salva Kiir, and
the SPLA in Opposition, backing former First Vice-President Riek Machar. That
led to deaths and injuries, including those of several UNMISS peacekeepers,
also undermining the implementation of the peace agreement between President
Kiir and Mr. Machar in August 2015, which formally ended their differences.
The Council,
as well as various senior UN officials, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, repeatedly
spoke out over the violence, condemning it and calling for calm and the safety
of civilians.
“So this has
been an extremely important visit, because it is our chance to see the
human
consequences of the failure of political leaders to bring peace back to their
country,” the leader of the delegation said.
Ms. Power
also said that the delegation met with women who described huge surges in
sexual violence against women who leave the camps to get firewood so that they
can cook for their family and for their children.
“As a mother
I can imagine that choice, a choice in whether I cook for my kids or whether I
risk sexual violence outside the camp. I know I will go and take that risk for
my children, I think any mother would,” she said.
And not one
South Sudanese that the delegation spoke to wants to live in these 'Protection
of Civilian' sites. Every single individual wants to go home. They are not
going home because they want food or water but they are terrified. Many men
described life at the sites as “a kind of prison.”
“And they
said that they want this prison sentence to end, and the only way it's going to
end is if the UN force gets up to full strength, the regional protection force
deploys and the peace agreement is implemented,” Ms. Power said.
SOURCE: un.org
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