Dec 13, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — According to the UN News Centre, the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has been renewed:
“The mandate of the mission was recently renewed and remains unchanged from the previous one. I believe it is fair to say that its member states were sending both warring parties a clear message when the UN Security Council voted to streamline UNMISS operations earlier this year,” said Loej
The mission has been in rough terms with Salva Kiir government, which involved the president openly accusing the mission of running a parallel government in the country.
President Salva Kiir has, in the past, demanded that the mission must handover to his government the weapons that were collected from both sides in the conflict.
UNMISS, however, has destroyed the weapons assembled in Juba and pledges to conduct similar exercises in Bor, Bentiu, Malakal and other parts of the country.
The armed opposition troops, government fighters and officials have accused one another of taking refuge in UNMISS compounds when they lost control of the towns.
Such perhaps contributed to confusion of both sides claiming to be in control of some areas within the same towns, except during extreme human rights violations.
The government, however, has maintained its position that the mission support the rebels and regime change in the country.
Partly to ease the tension, the mission replaced Miss Hilde John – after her term officially ended – with Ellen Margrethe Løj, however, Salva Kiir administration remains skeptical that the latter could follow the footsteps of the former:
“These are the people [UNMISS] he [Machar] has been using. The first woman who was here was the best friend of Riek Machar and was the one who took Riek Machar away from Juba. For the current one [Ellen Loej], I don’t have any comment about her because so far we have not proved that innu she is following the steps of her predecessor.” Salva Kiir said at the Consultative Conference, last month.
