Can 2,500 more African UN troops contain South Sudan carnage?
Blue helmets from Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia will try to freeze civil war
in South Sudan ahead of June 5 talks. The move comes after a donor
conference raised $600 million to avert famine.
By Will Davison, Correspondent /
May 31, 2014
The 2,500 troops from <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Ethiopia>
Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda should begin deploying in the world's newest
nation within weeks. Their aim is to enforce the May 9 truce agreed to by
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Salva+Kiir> President Salva Kiir and
his rival ex- <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Riek+Machar> Vice
President Riek Machar, according to Getachew Reda, adviser to Ethiopia's
prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
Officially, the soldiers are to protect teams of monitors from the region
whose mission is to verify reports of violations of a temporary cease-fire.
The subtext is that mediators hope the battalions will prove an intimidating
enough presence to deter fresh assaults. Such an intervention may be the
only way to stop hostilities, with the start of peace talks looming on June
5, according to many observers such as the
<
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-02/eu-says-african-force-only-way-to-
stop-south-sudan-killin.html> European Union.
Another hope behind what is essentially a regional intervention overseen by
the <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+Nations> UN is the
withdrawal of <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Uganda> Uganda's
military. Ugandan forces played an important role in halting rebel advances
at key points in the South Sudan conflict, but negotiators have criticized
Mr. Machar's rebels for using the presence of Ugandan troops, which aid Mr.
Kiir's government, as a stalling tactic in current talks.
Some longtime <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Sudan> Sudan-watchers,
however, describe the international efforts as too weak amid a brutal
conflict in a fledgling nation with powerful ethnic allegiances. They also
worry about the strong self-interests of regional African states that are
sending troops.
Canadian scholar John Young, author of "The Fate of Sudan: The Origins and
Consequences of a Flawed Peace Process," says that while the UN has a
mandate to act, that it has not begun to "seriously and critically assess
its weak performance in South Sudan and in particular its failed leadership
in the field. Increasing the size of the [UN] field deployment in the
country does not begin to address those problems."
Fighting in South Sudan broke out in the capital Juba in mid-December, after
Machar and other leading government figures challenged what they say was
Kiir's increasingly despotic rule. Kiir responded by accusing them of
plotting a coup.
Forces loyal to Kiir, a member of the Dinka ethnicity, then targeted Nuer
people - the ethnic group to which Machar belongs - in the capital,
according to the UN. This led to a Nuer uprising in Upper Nile, Jonglei, and
Unity states, with the fugitive Machar becoming the figurehead of the
rebellion.
The UN has accused both sides of targeted ethnic killing and UN and other
NGO agencies have documented a surprising scale of atrocities for such a
short conflict.
The local African troops will be part of the existing UN mission in South
Sudan, whose mandate was tweaked by the Security Council this week to focus
on civilian protection by some 12,000 soldiers and police, rather than the
original purpose of state-building.
The idea for the regional force came from peace envoys at the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a bloc of East African
countries overseeing negotiations between Kiir and Machar's delegates.
The UN mission is now mandated to use "all necessary means" to protect
civilians through "proactive deployment and active patrolling," particularly
if the government is failing to do so, according to the
<
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2014/sc11414.doc.htm> resolution.
The peacekeepers will face heavy rains, terrible roads, and a fragmented
conflict where commanders are only loosely in control of militias. They may
also face hostile rebels.
The new resolution says that oil fields are one of the areas peacekeepers
may deploy if "appropriate." This was rejected by a spokesman for the
insurgents, Lul Ruai Koang, today, who said it will help Kiir continue to
use oil revenues to fund the war.
"By stepping in to protect oil installations on behalf of the government,
UNMISS will have sided with one of the parties to the conflict and
inevitably becomes part of the problem not the solution," Mr. Koang said.
The latest initiative to end the civil war comes a week after donors at a
conference in Oslo, Norway pledged $600 million to try and prevent famine in
South Sudan. The three regions where fighting has been concentrated were the
most short of food before the outbreak of war.
Received on Sun Jun 01 2014 - 06:41:05 EDT