The presence of blue helmets in this East African country, where a civil war has been nearly 400,000 dead between 2013 and 2018, was extended until March 15, 2023.
Le Monde with AFP
The United Nations Security Council (UN) has unanimously decided by voters, Tuesday, March 15, to renew the mission of peacekeepers in South Sudan until March 15, 2023. If Russia and China Abstained during the resolution vote written by the United States, the thirteen other members of the Council approved this text which provides for the maintenance of the current workforce of the UNMIS (UNMISS in English).
With an authorized ceiling of 17,000 peacekeepers and 2,100 police officers for an annual budget exceeding $ 1 billion (over 910 million euros), this operation is one of the most costly of the United Nations.
Beijing said to be in favor of the extension of the mandate but explained its abstention by, in particular, the will attributed to the United States to insist on human rights in the resolution. The text is “very unbalanced”, denounced the Deputy Chinese ambassador, Dai Bing. Its Russian counterpart, Anna Evstigneeva, also described the resolution of “unbalanced” and regretted that the amendments proposed by Moscow were not taken into account.
The resolution stresses that the maintenance of blue helmets in this country is intended to “prevent a return to civil war”, to “build a lasting peace at the local and national levels”, and to “support inclusive and responsible governance and free, fair and peaceful elections “.
millions of displaced
At a meeting, in early March, Security Council, UN and the United States, key player in the creation of South Sudan, had urged the leaders of this country to advance the process for elections in less than a year, except to risk a “catastrophe”.
The youngest country in the world, which has been a chronic instability since its independence from Sudan in 2011, may plunge into the war, warned the United Nations.
South Sudan had fallen, between 2013 and 2018, in a bloody civil war between jurred enemies Riek Machar and Salva Kiir, who has been nearly 400,000 and millions of displaced.
A peace agreement signed in 2018 resulted in a power sharing in a national unity government invested in February 2020, with Mr. Kir as President and Mr. Machar as vice-president. But the provisions of the peace agreement remain largely inapplied, in particular because persistent quarrels between the two rivals.