For fear of returning to the cycle of violence
UN official: The world must not forget South Sudan
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan is responsible for maintaining security.
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The State of South Sudan is complaining about the problem of food security.
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Amid escalating global crises, from Afghanistan to Ethiopia and now Ukraine, the opportunity to stop what might be the next major crisis is missing.
Tensions are escalating in South Sudan before the end of the country's transitional peace period and elections scheduled for 2023, threatening a return to the widespread atrocities that killed more than 380,000 people during the civil war a few years ago, and is likely to intensify. Violence, displacement and hunger in the coming year.
Therefore, it is worth noting that the UN peacekeeping work in South Sudan has recently been renewed, but the mission will need support from the United States and other countries if it is to successfully balance the growing demands to support the delayed implementation of the 2018 peace agreement before elections, with the most urgent need to protect civilians.
The world, too, must not ignore the growing humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, where one-third of the population is still displaced, and two-thirds are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Three things
Three things are needed if South Sudan is to continue moving toward peace:
First, UNMISS must continue to protect civilians, even with limited resources and growing demands to support vital and lagging aspects of peace implementation, such as drafting a new constitution, preparing for elections, and a unified army.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan is mandated to protect civilians, promote peace, create safe conditions for humanitarian assistance, and monitor and then report on violations of human rights and humanitarian law.
However, protecting South Sudan will only become more difficult, as political maneuvering raises tensions, in the run-up to next year's elections.
The truth is that, in this country, the political elites have continued to fan violence in different regions.
The UN mission has had some success in staving off violence by establishing 125 temporary operating bases, in potential hot spots.
But this approach must be balanced with the need to monitor and respond to dangers at UN bases known as the Protection of Civilian Centers, where tens of thousands of people have fled to seek refuge during the civil war.
Over the past year, all but one of these five sites have been handed over by UN peacekeepers to the South Sudanese authorities, but this often means that these sites are, now, subject to oversight by the same authorities that led the attacks, which caused In people fleeing to those sites, in the first place.
The reality is that these sites will remain vulnerable centers that need to be monitored.
Peacekeepers will have to respond quickly if violence erupts.
In the meantime, the United Nations mission will have to wait for the transfer of the fifth site in Malakal until conditions permit, which is unlikely to happen any time soon.
Second, international donors must increase humanitarian assistance to meet the growing needs.
South Sudan is already facing the highest levels of food insecurity since its independence in 2011. Some 8.9 million people, out of a population of 12.4 million, need humanitarian assistance, half of whom are children.
Continuing violence, large-scale population displacement, and a declining economy are all key factors to the crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic, recent floods and droughts, and bureaucratic and security restrictions on aid access have only made matters worse.
Also, the South Sudanese authorities' repeated theft of humanitarian aid, which is likely to increase as elections approach, but this is not a reason to reduce aid to those in need, rather, it is a call for more due diligence and political attention to keep track of how it is spent.
Diplomatic Attention
This leads to the important third step: more diplomatic attention from the United States and its key partners, including Norway, the United Kingdom, and South Sudan's African neighbors.
As the main donor of humanitarian aid to South Sudan, America should urge other countries to donate more and intensify their diplomacy to bring peace.
Washington can begin appointing its diplomats to their posts, and after more than a year and a half without an American ambassador, the administration of President Joe Biden has finally announced a nomination that Congress must quickly examine and approve.
However, the position of the State Department's special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan has been vacant since last August.
The Biden administration should fill the job, or at least name a high-ranking official to focus on South Sudan within the office of the Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa.
South Sudan endured war for most of its first decade as a sovereign nation, and the renewed mandate of the mission, a crucial year ahead, to implement peace must be used to turn things around in the next decade.
Let's remember South Sudan.
• South Sudan is already facing the highest levels of food insecurity since its independence in 2011.
• 8.9 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, half of them are children.
• 380 thousand people were killed during the civil war.
• UNMISS must continue to protect civilians, even with limited resources and growing demands to support vital and lagging aspects of peace implementation, such as drafting a new constitution, preparing for elections, and creating a unified army.
* Daniel Sullivan is Refugees International's deputy director for Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
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