The United Nations Mission in South Sudan will play an advisory role and avail technical support to the peace process while acknowledging that there are tough challenges in the process, says the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General David Shearer.
In a press statement released on Wednesday, Mr. Shearer said the new mandate was incorporated as the UN Security Council extended the mission’s mandate for another year until March 2020.
“This is very important because it allows us to be more flexible and proactive in our support, for example providing experts to assist the various committees if they need our help with security arrangements, the boundaries issue, constitutional and administrative legal matters, transitional justice and accountability as well as electoral processes,” partly reads the statement.
Shearer also conceded the presence of numerous challenges in the process but called on all parties and especially the Intergovernmental Authority on Development IGAD to continue to play a ‘robust and active role’ in the process.
“Many of the obstacles today were unresolved when the peace agreement was signed. They are tough issues,” he said. “The cost of failure is unthinkable. So, the responsibility lies with all of us to move forward together to make this agreement a reality,” he added.
The statement stressed, “We need a clear roadmap – and detailed, realistic work plans – for the international community to invest in the process. The Government must also step up and take the lead by making a strong financial contribution.”
The UN official noted that the Security Council also included the facilitation of safe, voluntary and dignified return of internally displaced persons as core to UNMISS work.
Shearer noted that while tensions and clashes continue in some parts of the country, an overall level political violence has diminished many displaced people have returned to their homes reducing the number in UN Protection of Civilian Sites from 205,000 before the Peace Agreement to about 193,000.
"We will never force people to leave a protection site," the statement read.