UN calls for end to violence in war-torn S. Sudan

January 24, 2017 (JUBA) – The United Nations Security Council on Monday called for an end to the fighting in South Sudan as well as immediate deployment of regional protection forces in the country.

Speaking after the Security Council members held a closed-door meeting with the head of South Sudan’s peace monitoring body, Festus Mogae, Britain’s ambassador to the U.N, Matthew Rycroft warned that the young nation faces continued violence.

“I think that was a sign that things are very difficult in relation to the political agreement,” Rycroft told reporters on Monday.

This comes months after the U.N special envoy on prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng warned of a likely genocide in the country.

South Sudan has experience violence since December 2013 when political disagreements between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar saw the country split along ethnic dimensions.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in the country’s worst ever violence in its post-independence period.

The Swedish ambassador to the U.N, who is also the Security Council President, Olof Skoog, stressed that members of the 15-member body strongly back an “inclusive” national dialogue in South Sudan.

The Council, he further said, supports efforts by regional countries as well as the African Union to achieve a political solution, while emphasizing the need to establish a hybrid court in the country.

In August last year, the U.N Security Council approved an additional 4,000 peacekeepers after renewed clashes in July within the capital, Juba killed hundreds of people and displaced of thousands.

The force, yet to be deployed, was initially rejected by South Sudanese authorities.

(ST)