Two UN staff members' wellbeing in South Sudan remains unknown, the UN peacekeeping chief said Tuesday.

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the UN Security Council that he remains deeply concerned about two UNMISS staff members arrested in 2014, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix called upon all South Sudan parties, particularly the government, to ensure a safer and more conducive environment for humanitarian workers.

He said that attacks on humanitarian workers, the dangers posed to them and the impediments created by the parties to the conflict are unacceptable.

South Sudan peace

The top UN official said that since the signing of the revitalized peace agreement, there has been a significant improvement in the general security situation.

He noted that confidence-building measures between military commanders on the ground led to the reopening of roads, free movement of civilians, movement of government and opposition groups in areas controlled by each other and the beginning of the return of some displaced populations to their areas of origin.

However, Jean-Pierre Lacroix said that the security-related committees have made little visible progress with discussions mainly focusing on cantonment of military forces, their sustainment and the subsequent reintegration process rather than a more holistic approach to security sector reform focusing on the requirements for a national army that is ‘right sized’, affordable, depoliticized and focused on preserving the territorial integrity of South Sudan against external threat.

He told the Council “the peace process is not yet assessed as fully sustainable and irreversible and will need positive engagement and compromise from the parties if it is to deliver genuine hope and relief to the suffering South Sudanese populations.”

He said the responsibility to sustain “momentum” in implementing the peace agreement “lies solely with the parties.”

Lacroix said that the UN believes two critical benchmarks must be given top priority in the pre-transition period under the revitalized peace deal, which ends in May 2019: a comprehensive agreement on the security sector and transitional security arrangements, and a new chair of the reconstituted JMEC that will shepherd pre-transition negotiations.

Fighting and sexual violence

Locroix said that despite positive developments in the peace process, sporadic clashes did also take place, citing sporadic clashes in the greater Upper Nile region in early December, which resulted in 21 casualties, and expressed serious concern about attacks against civilians, including more rape cases.

“We also have serious concerns about the attacks against civilians that continue unabated. More rape cases were reported following the abhorrent incidents of rape and sexual assault in areas along Nhialdiu and Guit Roads near Bentiu. Inter-communal violence as well as criminality continue to affect the civilian population in general and women and children in particular, the latter being the most vulnerable amongst civilians,” he said.

The top UN official condemned in the strongest terms the prevalence of sexual violence in the country, saying the recent sexual assaults in Unity region are a stark reminder.

“Such brutality is indefensible, and the parties must spare no efforts in bringing to justice all those who were responsible for these atrocities. There cannot be meaningful peace without an end to – and accountability for – the brutalizing of innocent civilians,” he said.

Mr. Lacroix pointed out that South Sudan will not find a “respectable place among the community of nations”, until those responsible for brutalizing civilians are held accountable.