UN sets benchmarks for deployment of IGAD force in South Sudan

November 18, 2018 (NEW YORK) - The United Nations peacekeeping department set out three benchmarks for the integration of troops that the IGAD plan to deploy in South Sudan within the UN peacekeeping mission and called on the East African bloc to discuss the matter with them.

The matter was raised during a briefing on a joint visit with the African Union to South Sudan on 7-9 October by Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), to the UN Security Council on Friday.

Lacroix said the United Nations is ready to support the peace process in South Sudan adding that this support will be within the bounds of its mandate. But he was keen to add that with regard to the IGAD force he further added that it will be ultimately for the Security Council to decide.

"However, the following principles would need to be applied: a continuing priority of protection of civilians in UNMISS’ mandated tasks; the need to preserve a single peacekeeping force with one unified command and control structure; and, that any addition to the force would have to be carried out consistent with the principles of peacekeeping and the standards to which we hold all troop and police-contributing countries," he stressed.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Troika countries which include two permanent members at the Security Council called on the IGAD to discuss the deployment of the IGAD force with the 15-member body.

Last September, before to move to Somalia, former UN Special Envoy for South Sudan Nicholas Haysom supported the deployment of the IGAD force as part of the security arrangement process as agreed in the revitalized peace deal to file the security gap and to bring the parties to fully to observe the ceasefire, disengage force and the troops cantonment process.

He further said the incorporation of the IGAD force in the UN Regional Force within the framework of the UNMISS mandate "(...) would allow this council to engage on the security architecture including the provision of specialist VIP personnel as well as the geography of disengagement which would provide a more conducive environment for a peacekeeping intervention".

The IGAD military leaders held two meetings and formed an assessment team to visit Juba on 10 November.

The assessment committee will submit its report to a meeting of the IGAD chiefs of staff to take place in Addis Ababa on 19 November 2018.

The IGAD will discuss the force and its integration in the UNMISS’s RPF once the region’s military finalize their reports and studies about the implementation process and the security situation.

The IGAD force will include forces from four countries Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. Ethiopia has been already participating in the UN regional force deployed in South Sudan while Kenya had withdrawn its troops from the UNMISS to protest the sack of the force commander for failing to protect civilians in November 2016.

(ST)