UN closing bases in S.Sudan despite tense security concerns

The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has begun closing several of its bases in the country, AFP saw on Friday, citing a budget shortfall, despite the precarious security situation in the impoverished nation.

After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan disintegrated into a bloody civil war between 2013 and 2018 that claimed at least 400,000 lives.

A power-sharing agreement allowed for the return of a precarious calm. But since early 2025, violent clashes have erupted between the camps of President Salva Kiir and his Vice President Riek Machar, who was arrested in March.

In September, Kiir was charged with "crimes against humanity".

Due to US budget cuts to the UN, the peacekeeping mission in the world's youngest nation has been under pressure to implement a 25-percent reduction in uniformed personnel.

In mid-November Jeanâ€'Pierre Lacroix, the UN head of peacekeeping operations said the contingency plan entailed the closure of certain field offices and bases, repatriation of uniformed personnel, and reduction of national and international staff

On Friday, an AFP correspondent visited Torit, a base in the south of the country, where frequent clashes have been reported this year and where several hundred staff, security personnel and peacekeepers are deployed, according to an internal UNMISS source.

White UN 'marked tanks were seen escorting white military trucks leaving the base.

Short notice

Mark Omina, a senior representative of UNMISS's South Sudanese staff, told AFP that the closure "caught them off guard", taking away their only source of income.

"The information was given abruptly and within a short notice," Omina said.

Created in 2011 when South Sudan gained independence, official data showed that UNMISS had more than 13,000 military personnel and 1,500 police officers as of July -- before the troop reduction plan.

UK-based charity Oxfam observed that South Sudan has never received so little aid in 14 years.

With two million South Sudanese internally displaced, ongoing violence has forced another 300,000 to flee, the UN estimated in October.

The country also hosts more than a million people who have escaped from the fighting in neighbouring Sudan.

At the end of September, the UN recorded 1,854 people killed, 1,693 injured, and 423 abducted since the start of the year.

UNMISS is set to close its bases in Aweil, in the north on the border with Sudan, Warrap -- another northern region where interâ€'clan clashes have been deadly -- and the central Rumbek area.

"Let them go," Nakuwa, a Torit resident interviewed by AFP, said in October. "South Sudan must learn to take care of itself."

Political analyst Charles Lokwaruk told AFP: "The closure of UNMISS bases will have no tangible impact on the people of South Sudan.

"Their presence did not prevent conflicts in South Sudan," he said, adding: "The UN has spent billions of dollars to maintain UNMISS, and yet it has fulfilled none of its mandates."

Source: https://www.modernghana.com/news/1458102/un-closing-bases-in-ssudan-despite-tense-security.html