Security Council extends UNMISS one year

12 Jul 2013

Security Council extends UNMISS one year

11 July 2013 - Recognizing the need to continue assisting the world's newest nation with peace and security as well as conditions for development, the UN Security Council today extended UNMISS until 15 July 2014.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council drew attention to UNMISS' priority task of protecting civilians, urging the mission to "deploy its assets accordingly".

The Council welcomed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's intention that "UNMISS will geographically reconfigure its military and asset deployment to focus on volatile high-risk areas and protection requirements".

In his recent report on South Sudan, Mr. Ban wrote that the primary responsibility for protection of civilians lay with the government, although UNMISS would continue to focus on this as one of its core tasks.

"A peacekeeping mission, however configured, cannot replace the Government, which is also responsible for ensuring the safety and security, and freedom of movement, of United Nations personnel and assets deployed to assist it in this regard," he stated.

Mr. Ban condemned violence against UN personnel in South Sudan, recalling the requirement that the government hold perpetrators of those attacks accountable, irrespective of who they were.

He added that those responsible in the Sudan People's Liberation Army for the December 2012 shooting of an UNMISS helicopter – which killed all four crew members on board – must be brought to justice immediately.

The Council today called on the South Sudanese government to take greater responsibility for protecting civilians and encouraged greater cooperation with UNMISS.

It also demanded that the government and all relevant parties cooperate fully in deployment, monitoring, verification, and reporting functions of UNMISS, guaranteeing the safety, security and unrestricted freedom of movement of UN and associated personnel throughout the country.

Among its many other provisions, the resolution expressed deep concern at increasing violence, especially in the Tri-States Area of Lakes, Unity and Warrap, and in Jonglei and Western Bahr El-Ghazal states, underlining the need to address causes of communal violence in South Sudan.