UN moves to protect South Sudan civilians

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United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan are moving more aggressively to protect civilians caught in the country’s four-year civil war, after years of criticism for failures that led to the sacking of the mission’s military chief last year.

This year, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has rescued aid workers and UN staff during attacks, saved civilians from abduction by armed groups, and pushed past roadblocks to a massacre site.

South Sudan was the world’s youngest country when it became independent from neighboring Sudan in 2011 following decades of conflict.

The Al-Nimir camp for South Sudanese refugees in the Sudanese state of East Darfur on August 15, 2017. /AFP Photo

But the new nation dissolved into civil war less than two years later, after President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer.

Since then tens of thousands have died, and 3.5 million of the country’s 12 million citizens have fled their homes, creating Africa’s largest refugee crisis since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Base protection

As the war spread, families flooded into UN bases seeking protection. More than 210,000 people now stay in six such bases, too fearful to go home.

Between December 2013 and July 2016, more than 100 civilians and four UN peacekeepers were killed in attacks on UN bases when peacekeepers didn’t shoot back, fled, or delayed responding, according to data from the UN and CIVIC.

But a chastened UNMISS has gradually taken a tougher stance, boosted by the January arrival of new chief David Shearer, a former New Zealand labor party leader.

"We are trying to make our peacekeeping more robust," Shearer told Reuters. “Our peacekeepers are going to stand up to situations and challenge them.”

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (C) visits the Al-Nimir camp in the Sudanese state of East Darfur on August 15, 2017 to assess the situation for South Sudanese refugees living in Sudan. /AFP Photo

Several incidents demonstrate the change. In April, peacekeepers deployed to Aburoc, a village on the Nile. After the UN arrived, rebels withdrew, and a government offensive that had displaced 20,000 civilians paused. Aid workers then intervened to stop a cholera outbreak.

The same month, peacekeepers went to Torit in the southeast to protect an orphanage housing 250 children caught between the front lines.

Mongolian peacekeepers in northern Bentiu town have repeatedly rescued civilians from abduction by armed groups this year, including one incident where they fired their weapons. Reuters was unable to find records of such interventions for previous years.

Since the buffer zone opened at the end of November, serious crimes like rape and murder reported near the camp had dropped from around 48 per month to between 1 and 5, the UN said.

Strained history

UN peacekeepers have been in South Sudan since before independence, but found themselves frequently criticized after war broke out by aid groups like Doctors Without Borders, who said they were not doing enough to protect civilians.

(From L) The spokesperson of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Daniel Dickinson, the United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, and the head of the UNMISS, David Shearer, walk at the UN terminal after landing in Juba, South Sudan, on August 1, 2017. /AFP Photo‍

A year ago, peacekeepers at the UN’s main Juba base ignored desperate pleas for help when government troops attacked a hotel a mile away, killing one aid worker and gang-raping others.

In following days, government troops raped dozens of Nuer women outside the same base. Ten aid agencies released a joint statement accusing peacekeepers of failing to adequately patrol the area.

“The inability of UNMISS to protect civilians threatens to undermine any attempts at safety and security in the country and makes it impossible for humanitarian agencies to provide the help that is so urgently needed,” Frederick McCray, South Sudan Country Director at charity CARE, said at the time.

The UN eventually launched an investigation that led to the firing of UNMISS’ top general, Kenya’s Johnson Ondieki, in November. In response, Kenya pulled its troops from the peacekeeping mission.

Problems remain

Despite more robust peacekeeping, the violence continues. The mission has 12,000 armed peacekeepers and a budget of over a billion dollars. But that’s not enough to patrol a nation the size of France with under 300 km (185 miles) of paved roads.

Part of the problem is that the UN needs permission from South Sudan’s government for its presence. That can interfere with investigations or interventions aimed at government forces.

Last week, the government grounded UN flights after a dispute about the deployment of an additional 4,000 troops to beef up the peacekeeping mission. The government is reluctant to accept the new force.

“The UN cannot be totally independent in a country that is sovereign. They need to be working in cooperation with the government ... They cannot run a parallel government,” said presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny.

In the meantime, government forces killed civilians, bombing and shelling the area, and burning people alive in their homes, rights body Amnesty International said.

Source(s): Reuters