The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has declined to commit to protect a new site being prepared in Malakal for over 10,000 displaced people living inside its overcrowded "Protection of Civilians" base.

The development comes as the mission is under investigation by the UN headquarters in New York over its peacekeepers' response to a 17 February attack on the same Malakal base which left two dozen people dead. UNMISS has been criticized for responding slowly and failing to protect the civilians inside.

The new site in Malakal, called Sector 5, is being built so the people in existing Sectors 1-4 have more space. Currently, there are 42,533 people living in Sectors 1-4 after 5000 Dinka people left the base last month following the February attack, according to a report seen by Radio Tamazuj on the overcrowding by a group of aid workers called the Camp Coordination and Camp Management cluster (CCCM).

Sectors 1-4 were originally built for only 18,000 people, so the people living there have an average of 3.35 square meters of space per person, according to calculations based off UNMISS and CCCM figures. International humanitarian standards require 30 square meters per person.

According to CCCM, the cramped living conditions create a serious risk of disease, flooding, and fires. Opening Sector 5 would improve the situation by housing 10,261 people, increasing the average living space per person in Sectors 1-4 to between 8.2 and 14.5 square meters per person, depending on the sector.

While these numbers are still well below international humanitarian standards, the opening of Sector 5 would translate to over 32,000 people having more than two to three times as much space as they do now. However, aid workers say that UNMISS had failed to provide any protection for the new site. Since Malakal remains unstable, people are likely remain in Sectors 1-4 with only 3.35 square meters of living space.

"10,000 people will need shelter in Malakal sector 5 to reduce the risk of fire and flooding, and UNMISS is still not committing to providing perimeter security," said one aid worker informed of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"In light of the recent events at the Malakal POC, it is clear that tensions remain high and berms and fencing alone will be insufficient [to protect Sector 5]," the aid worker added, noting that without peacekeepers, Sector 5 would be a large, unprotected IDP camp in an extremely volatile area.

"Humanitarians are urging UNMISS to provide manned security (guards, observation posts, etc) along the perimeter of the Sector 5 extension," the aid worker said.

When reached by Radio Tamazuj, UNMISS acting spokesperson Shantal Persaud did not directly respond to the question of whether the mission has agreed to protect Sector 5, but noted that peacekeepers have conducted patrols. Instead, she suggested the extension is not necessary because civilians currently living in Sectors 1-4 have enough space.

"Previously some 47,000 IDPs were being sheltered in sectors 1-4, and with the departure of 5,000 IDPs from the POC site in February, this has decongested the area," Persaud said. "In light of this, the sector 5 will not be operational for the time being."

68 people per toilet

However, calculations show that last month's exit of 5000 people did not seriously impact the amount of space for people in Sectors 1-4. Before the 5000 people left, there were only 3 square meters of space per person, according to CCCM. That means last month's exit of 5000 people increased space by less than half a square meter per person.

The exit of 5000 people also did not significantly improve other basic conditions. Before the attack, 76 people shared each latrine in Sectors 1-4, according to CCCM. Today, there are still 68 people per latrine. International standards dictate a maximum of twenty people should share one latrine.

"There is insufficient space in Sectors 1-4, even with use of the block previously occupied by Dinka IDPs in Sector 2, to accommodate all families on official plots," CCCM concluded. "Sector 5 development was deemed necessary to de-congest the site, improve living conditions, and reduce associated risks."

One of the biggest risks is fire. Already, three fires have ripped through the Malakal base, with one blaze in each of the last three months as flames quickly spread between closely packed structures.

After the first fire, which destroyed homes for 1500 people and killed a child in January, the International Organization for Migration aid group noted that the blaze took place in a heavily congested and overcrowded area. IOM said at the time that "the response was also complicated by congested access routes, which made access/mobility more difficult."

In its latest document, CCCM warned that without the new Sector 5, civilians short on space in Sectors 1-4 will be forced to build makeshift shelters in main roads within the camp, hampering emergency response to fires. The group added that people will also likely pitch their tents on berms and in drainage ditches, which could increase risk of flooding and spread of disease.

"In light of these concerns, and the operational necessity for the creation of Sector 5 as noted above, it is hoped that an agreement on appropriate security arrangements – both physical and human resources – for Sector 5 can be reached between UNMISS and humanitarians imminently," the CCCM urged.

The aid worker said relief agencies have already raised their concerns to UNMISS regarding the overcrowding, but have been unable to convince them to protect Sector 5 to open up more space.

"Humanitarians have warned UNMISS that returning to previous congestion levels is dangerous, and that as we support recovery from the incident on the 17th/18th, we need to be prioritizing these preventive measures," the aid worker said.

Peacekeepers 'overstretched'

An internal UNMISS document seen by Radio Tamazuj says that the UN's peacekeeping force in Malakal is already 'overstretched', a factor that may relate to the Mission's reluctance to commit to protecting an even larger perimeter than its existing one, which was breached by attackers last month.

The document is a contingency plan drafted for the possibility that SPLM-IO fighters take over Malakal again, as they did in 2014 and 2015. In this scenario, thousands of Dinka civilians could seek safety in the UNMISS base, where last month there were clashes along ethnic lines, joined by soldiers from outside.

Realizing that admitting more people to the protection site under such circumstances could result in renewed inter-ethnic violence within the site, UNMISS planners considered the possibility of deploying peacekeepers outside their base in order to protect the Dinka civilians, who would potentially be at risk of targeted ethnic violence.

The planners concluded, however, that in such an event, the Mission would have neither "the political space nor the opportunity to protect Dinka IDPs outside the UNMISS Base," and thus recommended opening the gates for the Dinka and protecting them inside.

“In the event of an influx of around 5000 people towards its Base, UNMISS, with its current force strength of approximately 1000 troops [in Malakal], would not have the capacity to provide physical protection at any location outside the Base taking into account that the strength of these forces is already overstretched with existing tasks,” says the contingency plan.

UNMISS' contingency plan therefore calls for Rwandan, Ethopian and Indian peacekeepers at the Malakal base to admit the hypothetical refuge-seekers into the base. In the event, they would also patrol perimeters to prevent attacks and create a 'buffer zone' between ethnic Shilluk and Nuer people already inside the protection site and the new Dinka arrivals.

However, the draft proposal did not identify any permanent location within the base for the Dinka, instead only offering a temporary location to house the Dinka for at least 72 hours. UNMISS noted that the Dinka would be in danger if housed among the other communities in the camp due to ethnic tensions which could turn violent.

On the other hand, the aid worker suggested that UNMISS' reason for not protecting Sector 5 is not just about force constraints but may be political as well.

"The objection [to protecting Sector 5] seems to come from the political sections in the mission, who oppose protecting the extension as a matter of principle: now that there is a peace agreement, we should be facilitating people to leave POC Sites, not making the Sites bigger," the aid worker said.

It is not the first time that aid workers have criticized UNMISS for keeping thousands of people in overcrowded 'protection sites'. Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) last year charged that the conditions at the Malakal base were causing outbreaks of disease. MSF also slammed UNMISS for failing to give enough space to civilians living in its Tongpiny base in Juba in 2014.

Meanwhile, UNMISS has on a number of occasions refused to allow civilians into its bases at all, including in the Upper Nile town of Renk and more recently in the Western Equatoria state capital Yambio.

Investigative reports published by Radio Tamazuj last year also found that the mission had left unprotected parts of the perimeter of an extension site in Bentiu amid a series of rapes, killings, and abductions by armed soldiers entering the base or waiting outside.

File photo: UN peacekeepers in Bentiu, 2014