New York, USA, March 09, 2023/African Media Agency(AMA)/In South Sudan, while little progress has been made in implementing the revitalized Peace Agreement in recent months, the envoy of the UN estimated Monday before the Security Council, that 2023 would be the year of “make it or break it” for all stakeholders.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan, Nicholas Haysom, had come to present to Council members the report of the Secretary-General covering the activities of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) for the period from 1 December 2022 to February 15, 2023.
The concluding observations of this report open with a warning: “If the established deadlines are not met, however small the delay, the objectives agreed upon by the parties when they extended the transition period by two years by adopting the roadmap in August 2022 will be difficult to achieve”.
However, on December 31, the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, declared that it was necessary to extend the transition period by 24 months, because key provisions of the Revitalized Conflict Resolution Agreement were not not met and that the progress made so far was undermined by deadly sub-national violence.
Hostilities in several states
The Special Representative echoed these concerns about the “rapid escalation” of hostilities in Upper Nile, Jonglei, Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria and Equatoria -Occidental, as well as in the administrative area of Grand Pibor. In his report, the Secretary-General expresses his dismay at the large-scale abductions of women and children.
This deterioration in security, fueled by inter-tribal rivalries over limited resources, makes it all the more urgent for Mr. Haysom to consolidate, reinforce and deploy the “necessary unified forces”, so that they can protect civilians and help humanitarian personnel provide assistance to the needy, also strained by climatic shocks.
In 2023, no less than 9.4 million people, or 76% of the population of South Sudan, including 350,000 refugees, could need humanitarian assistance, an increase of 5% compared to last year , detailed Tareq Talahma, the Acting Director of the Operations and Advocacy Division of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
According to him, about 7.8 million people will face acute food insecurity from April to July, with 43,000 likely to be in “disaster” situations in Jonglei and Unity states. Record figures, which exceed what was observed during the conflict in 2013 and 2016, alarmed Mr. Talahma.
In the current security context, the Special Representative today questioned whether UNMISS, whose current mandate expires on March 15, is, in its current configuration, truly suited to the situation in view of the December 2024 elections, but also in the light of current tensions and insecurity.
He requested that a study be carried out to determine to what extent the mission has sufficient resources to support the implementation of the Peace Agreement, while stressing the importance for the South Sudanese leaders to reconcile and put the national interest above their own.
Distributed by African Media Agency for UN Info
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Source : African Media Agency (AMA)