The UN Security Council on Friday took a decision to strengthen a peacekeeping force in South Sudan’s capital, Juba despite opposition from the world’s youngest nation’s government.
A resolution, passed by an 11-to-0 vote with four abstentions, basically gives the United Nations far more authority in South Sudan, backed by thousands of additional troops and lethal force if needed, to protect civilians and pressure armed antagonists in the conflict — including government soldiers, reports the New York Times.
These African troops will have a more robust mandate than the 12,000 UN soldiers already in the country.
The Security Council’s approval came as the mandate of the current peacekeeping operation, known as the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, was about to expire. The UN force struggled to keep civilians safe as more than 35,000 people rushed to its base in Juba.
The fighting between rival forces in July left hundreds of people dead less than year after a peace deal was signed.
More than 100,000 South Sudanese have now fled to neighbouring countries in the wake of the latest unrest, the UN refugee agency says.
The resolution represents an unusually robust action by the Council, invoking its rarely used coercive power to militarily intervene when international peace and security are considered to be threatened.
The US-drafted resolution says it will “use all necessary means, including undertaking robust action where necessary, and actively” patrol to enforce peace.
It will also ensure the protection of Juba and the airport and “promptly and effectively engage any actor that is credibly found to be preparing attacks or engages in attacks”, the BBC reports.
The African Union explained the mission would be similar to the deployment of a 3,000-strong special force that took on and swiftly defeated the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2013.
Political differences between President Salva Kiir and the former vice president Riek Machar ignited civil war in December 2013 – and they only agreed to settle their differences under intense international pressure, signing a peace deal last August.
Mr Machar, who only returned to Juba in April, fled the city during the latest fighting, demanding the deployment of a neutral force to keep the peace and guarantee his safety.
