Strategic Review of UNMISS Mandate About to Begin

Strategic Review of UNMISS Mandate About to Begin

Strategic Review of UNMISS Mandate About to Begin

16 Nov 2017

Strategic Review of UNMISS Mandate About to Begin

Francesca Mold

A strategic review of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan’s peacekeeping role in the conflict-affected country will begin later this month ahead of consideration of its mandate by the UN Security Council.

The current mandate, which came into force in December 2016, authorizes UNMISS to use “all necessary means” to protect civilians. It also requires the Mission to monitor and investigate human rights, create conditions conducive to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and to support the implementation of the peace agreement. That mandate expires next month.

In the next few weeks, a review team from the UN Headquarters will travel to South Sudan to consider the security and humanitarian situation, consult with a wide range of people in the capital as well as in more remote parts of the country. It will also speak with other South Sudanese groups based in Addis Ababa, including the opposition.

“What we would like to do through the strategic review is to canvass and understand some of the issues and opinions of people here in South Sudan so that we can feed that into the decision that will ultimately be made by the Security Council,” said the Head of UNMISS and Special Representative of the Secretary-General, David Shearer, at a press conference in Juba.

It is the 15-member Security Council, based in New York, that will decide whether to extend the mandate, not UNMISS. The review team’s findings as well as other broader consultation processes will inform their decision-making.

South Sudan has been plagued by ongoing conflict since the outbreak of civil war in 2013 - two years after the country won independence and joined the UN to become the world’s newest nation. Four million people have fled to neighbouring countries to escape the violence or are internally displaced, with 213,000 people living in sites protected by UN peacekeepers.

“We are not looking at the mandate not being renewed at the moment. There is no plan B, there is only plan A, that the mandate will be renewed. So, inshallah, I hope it is and we are able to continue as we are. If it does not, then we will frantically start planning,” said David Shearer.

The Security Council is expected to consider the issue of the UNMISS mandate at a meeting next month.