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UN urges deployment of more S Sudan peacekeepers

Tuesday, 24 November 2015 6:48 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 24 November 2015 6:50 PM ]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (AFP photo)

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the deployment of an extra number of 1,100 peacekeeping forces to South Sudan as unprecedented level of violence continues to grip the African country.

In a recent report to the UN Security Council on the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, Ban recommended that 500 additional military troops and 600 police be sent to the country.

The UN chief also urged the deployment of 13 helicopters and transport planes to quickly move the peacekeepers.

In addition to that, Ban called for the construction of a field hospital in Bentiu, the capital of Unity State, where nearly 100,000 people have taken refuge in the UN-operated base.

Figures show nearly 180,000 people are sheltered in six UN bases across South Sudan.

Ban said there should be an upgraded medical facility in the capital, Juba.

More UN vehicles and food patrols will be needed, he stated, to protect aid convoys and ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid across the country.

During the briefing to the 15-member Security Council, the UN chief accused both the troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by rebel leader Riek Machar of committing violence and mass killings.

“The atrocities committed during the twenty months of conflict and general collapse of state authority … imply that revenge killings and increased inter-communal violence will also constitute major risks during the transition period,” Ban stated.

Some 12,500 peacekeepers have been deployed in South Sudan, which has been wracked by the conflict between government forces and rebels since December 2013.

The photo taken on July 25, 2015 shows internally displaced women and children waiting for their food ration after an humanitarian airdrop by the World Food Program (WFP) in a small locality in Mayendit County of Unity State, South Sudan. (AFP photo)

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than two million.

Under pressure from its neighbors and a threat of UN sanctions, Machar signed a power-sharing agreement on August 17. The president signed the peace deal about ten days later, on August 26.

The deal has failed to end the civil war in the world’s youngest nation.

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