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East African countries to contribute troops to monitor South Sudan ceasefire
East African states agreed on Thursday to deploy troops in South Sudan by mid-April to help enforce a ceasefire deal between government forces and rebels, the chief mediator in peace talks between the 2 sides said.
South Sudan’s neighbors fear unrest in the world’s newest country could spill beyond its borders and destabilize the region which has in recent years enjoyed strong economic growth.
At a summit in the Ethiopian capital, leaders from the regional bloc – the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) agreed to a force whose mandate would be “protection and deterrence”, an official said, including the protection of vital installations such as oilfields.
“These troops are envisaged to be on the ground by no later than mid-April,” Seyoum Mesfin, chief mediator of the peace talks between South Sudan’s feuding sides, told journalists.
Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda will contribute troops while Djibouti is also expected to join, he said.
All except Rwanda already contribute to the 22,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia which is battling al-Qaeda-linked militants – the al-Shabaab.
Rwanda has sent peacekeepers to the Sudanese region of Darfur and Central African Republic.
The bloc’s decision comes at a time when peace talks have been making little headway towards ending more than 2 months of skirmishes in the oil-producing country.
Seyoum criticized both sides for dragging their feet in implementing the ceasefire, and said the bloc hoped to deploy at least a smaller contingent by mid-April.
“Whatever we get we will send on the ground. If we get a hundred, two hundred, a thousand, one thousand five hundred, they should be on the ground,” he said.
“We should not wait until all the countries prepare and tell you that they will send.”
Negotiations, meant to thrash out a deal on political reform after a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar sparked the unrest, are now due to resume on March 20.
Source: Reuters