Members of the United Nations Security Council landed at the Juba International Airport on Friday, the beginning of a four day trip to the country.
The Security Council is a body made up of fifteen countries based in the United Nations that make crucial decisions on peacekeeping, sanctions, and other security measures across the world.
The trip will focus on how to improve the humanitarian situation in South Sudan, and also discuss with the government a regional protection force. In August, the council decided to send in an additional 4,000 peacekeepers to South Sudan.
In prepared remarks, US Ambassador Samantha Power was critical of the government, and said it was not cooperating with the United Nations.
“The international community is extremely frustrated with the obstruction of UN peacekeeping operations that have gone on too long. It’s extremely difficult for the UN to do its work here,” she said. “With the poverty and extreme hunger, the international community tried to step up, we need a partner,”
The government has accepted in principal the force, but many outright reject it. On Thursday, the US Embassy said that there were reports of protests against the additional peacekeepers in the capital.
The UN representative from Senegal said that protecting South Sudan’s sovereignty was paramount, and highlighted that it was a protection force. “You accepted in principal the deployment,” he said. “This deployment will be done in collaboration with the South Sudanese government,”
There are already 12,000 UN peacekeepers in South Sudan.
But Power said that if South Sudan did not comply with the UN Security Council resolution, than targeted sanctions and an arms embargo were possibilities.
“People who are operating with impunity don’t want to operate with UNMISS and don’t want to cooperate with a regional protection force,” she said.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power speaks after landing in South Sudan