The top UN official in South Sudan said that she has still not received a formal letter from South Sudan that confirms a decision to allow the deployment of the regional protection force without conditions.

On Friday, South Sudan’s Cabinet of Ministers unanimously approved the deployment of a 4,000 strong regional peacekeeping force with a bolstered mandate that would add to the more than 12,000 peacekeepers already in the country. The Minister of Cabinet Affairs Martin Lomuro was quoted as saying the acceptance has "no conditions".

But speaking to reporters on Monday, Ellen Loj said that she “hope(ed) to get a statement in writing that has been promised, so we at UNMISS will continue to plan for the arrival,” of the protection force.

UN officials have frequently said that they have become frustrated with South Sudan's ambiguous stance on the protection force, and have also added the government is trying to undercut the force. 

Loj also denied that the UN had accepted terms that Lomuro laid out in a letter on November 16th.

In a letter to the Security Council, Lomoru said that South Sudan and the UN had agreed to a series of restrictions not only on peacekeepers already in the country, but on the additional protection force.

The restrictions include the requirement for the UN to notify South Sudan’s government 72 hours before patrols, a severe restriction of where the UN can monitor government forces, and strictly limits the type of weapons the protection force can bring.

The restrictions would appear to violate the UN's status of forces agreement with the government.

Loj said that after receiving the letter on November 16th, she denied its validity to the Security Council.

“We hadn’t seen that before. There are things in that letter we do not agree with and we have communicated it to the honorable minister,” Loj said.