U.N. voices 'grave concern' at persistent South Sudan violence
Wed Jun 4, 2014 8:27pm GMT
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, June 4 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on
Wednesday condemned the continued bloodshed in South Sudan in violation of
two ceasefire agreements and urged both sides in the conflict to halt all
military operations in keeping with previous pledges.
The remarks came in a readout of a telephone conversation Ban had on
Wednesday with South Sudan's President Salva Kiir.
"He (Ban) expressed his grave concern that hostilities have continued in
violation of the 23 January Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities and
the 9 May Agreement between President Kiir and former Vice-President Riek
Machar to resolve the crisis in South Sudan," the U.N. press office said.
"He stressed the need for both parties to abide by these agreements and end
all military operations immediately," it said, noting that Ban urged Kiir
and Machar to meet on June 9.
The United Nations has already said that maintaining a ceasefire was crucial
for efforts to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis in the world's
youngest country.
Fighting has killed thousands of people and driven more than 1.3 million
from their homes.
Government forces and rebels, who have been fighting since mid-December,
agreed a second ceasefire deal in May after the first one in January
collapsed. South Sudan's army spokesperson reported more clashes on Monday
in Unity and Upper Nile states, oil producing areas that have been
flashpoints in the conflict.
A senior U.N. official said on Tuesday that South Sudan can only avoid
famine if the shaky ceasefire holds and people displaced by more than five
months of fighting are able to return home in the next few weeks to plant
crops before the rains.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been seeking protection for months at
U.N. peacekeeping bases around the country. The crisis has stretched the
capacity of the blue-helmeted forces, who were originally deployed to help
the government stabilize the country after it acquired independence from
Sudan in 2011.
As a result, the U.N. peacekeeping department has had to boost the number of
troops and police and alter its mandate to make protecting civilians a top
priority for the U.N. mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS.
Last week U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous confirmed that China planned
to send a battalion of troops to join UNMISS, along with additional soldiers
from Rwanda, Ethiopia and Kenya, who are expected to join the mission.
U.N. officials said this would be the first time China had contributed a
full infantry battalion of about 850 troops to a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
Last year China sent a smaller "protection unit" to join the U.N. mission in
Mali. (Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Diane Craft)