UN / LADSOUS SOUTH SUDAN

The top United Nations (UN) peacekeeping official, said that “there is no question” that sheltering displaced civilians in South Sudan nearly three years ago was “the right decision,” although “nobody expected that the crisis in South Sudan would go on for such a long time and that we would still have these huge numbers in our protection sites.” UNIFEED-UNTV / UNMISS

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:39
• Production Date: 22 June 2016
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: HERVÉ LADSOUS
• Corporate Name: SECURITY COUNCIL; UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN SOUTH SUDAN – UNMISS
• Subject Topical: DISPLACED PERSONS; PEACE AND SECURITY; VIOLENCE
• Geographic Subject: SOUTH SUDAN
• MAMS Id: 1653630
• Parent Id: 1653630
• Alternate Title: unifeed160622a

Description

STORY: UN / LADSOUS SOUTH SUDAN
TRT: 02:39
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV / UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 22 JUNE 2016, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE – NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations headquarters

22 JUNE 2016, NEW YORK CITY

2. Pan left, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous,walks up to the stakeout position
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
“While there is no question that we made at the time the right decision to take these people, many of them would be dead by now if we hadn’t done that, but then, nobody expected that the crisis in South Sudan would go on for such a long time and that we would still have these huge numbers in our protection sites.”
4. Wide shot, Ladsous
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
“There is much to do. Clearly we have to do a better job, sill better job, because we do invest a lot in training the people. And of course, it’s a process because you know people we had trained last year, well, since they have rotated. So we have to make sure that the new incoming people, and that’s one of the recommendations, get training spot on as soon as they arrive in mission. It’s also about explaining in depth and making sure, and checking that everybody from the top to the second last private, has the very same understanding of the rules of engagement, what it is it means. What it means that they should do. It’s a matter of doing table top exercises, you know, and actually we have done a table top exercise last September which would have probably benefitted the people in Malakal in February, if they had not in the meantime rotated.”
6. Wide shot, Ladsous
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
“I will not name names at this point. But certainly there will be repatriation, in some cases a unit, in other cases, of individual officers. Thank you.”

FILE – UNMISS - 18 FEBURARY, 2016, MALAKAL, SOUTH SUDAN

8. Wide shot, internally displacement inside open spaces UNMISS LOG BASE
9. Wide shot, wounded man being helped to walk by two women
10. Med shot, the wounded drinking water
11. Wide shot, people hurrying to get some space - sound of gunshots, and smoke in the background where the Protection of Civilians site is located
12. Wide shot, internally displaced person sheltering
13. Wide shot, un armoured vehicle
14. Pan left, women and children sitting on the ground gunshots in the background
15. Various shots, people rushing for shelter and protection

Storyline

The top United Nations (UN) peacekeeping official, today (22 June) said that “there is no question” that sheltering displaced civilians in South Sudan nearly three years ago was “the right decision,” although “nobody expected that the crisis in South Sudan would go on for such a long time and that we would still have these huge numbers in our protection sites.”

Speaking to reporters after briefing the Security Council on the situation of Protection of Civilians (POC) sites in South Sudan, peacekeeping chief, Hervé Ladsous spoke of the events in Malakal on on 17 and 18 February this year.

Ladsous said “There is much to do” regarding the training of peacekeepers in charge of security at the POC sites.

He said “clearly we have to do a better job” and noted that peacekeepers that had been trained last year, “since they have rotated.”

Ladsous said that “everybody from the top to the second last private” needs to have “the very same understanding of the rules of engagement.”

He said that he would “not name names at this point, but certainly there will be repatriation” of units or individuals who have committed abuses.

The United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) created the POC sites when fighting between factions of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) broke out in the capital, Juba, on 15 December 2013 and quickly spread throughout the country.

On the evening of 17 February 2016, violence erupted in the Malakal POC site after weeks of growing tensions between the Dinka and Shilluk communities. Over a period of 24 hours an estimated 1,251 official shelters were burned, 29 people were killed, and over 140 were injured.