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STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS
TRT: 4:10
SOURCE: UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 04 APRIL 2025, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN / 20 FEBRUARY 2025, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
1. Various shots, Juba IDP Camp and Rwandese Peacekeepers keeping guard
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Angelina Nyang Char, Displacement Camp Resident:
“We are feeling unsafe, and we need UNMISS patrols to increase and, also, for the camp to be securely fenced because, if people move outside, they can meet their deaths. We are not sure who the killers are, but we know they are around us.”
3. Various shots, Juba IDP Camp and Nepalese Peacekeepers on patrol
4. Various shots, UNMISS APC on Night Patrol
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lieutenant Moise Mutuyimana, UNMISS Rwanda Battalion III Patrol Commander:
“Our mandate is protection of civilians, so that’s the main reason why we patrol during the night. Another main reason is to make the IDPs [internally displaced persons] feel secure and confident through our presence.”
6. Various shots, UNMISS Rwandese Peacekeepers on night patrol
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Fossen, UNMISS Police Commissioner:
“In light of the current security developments, we recognize through our engagements with the communities and the displaced persons, that they have some concerns about their safety and their future. As United Nations police, we have engaged through the communities, actively patrolling, being present in the areas, in an aim to help them feel safer.”
8. Med shot, Child running waving behind UNMISS Patrol
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Kol Choul Kir, Displacement Camp Management Committee Chairman:
“UNMISS is always around and responds when we need their presence, so they help us supporting us in the form of information, support us in also guarding the camp, those are the parts that UNMISS is helping us.”
10. Various shots, UNMISS Rwandese Peacekeepers on day patrol
11. Various shots, AU Panel of the wise arriving in Juba and meeting with the President (No sound on meeting with the President.
20 FEBRUARY 2025, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
12. Various shots, UNMISS SRSG at RJMEC meeting
Tens of thousands of people who fled violence during the brutal civil war that raged across South Sudan in 2013 found sanctuary in this camp next to the United Nations peacekeeping base in Juba. Twelve years later, many remain, as they feel unable to return safely to their original homes and are reliant on humanitarian support.
They now face a fresh threat with clashes between forces aligned with the two main parties to the peace agreement taking place in several locations across the country and political tensions soaring in the capital.
Angelina Nyang Char, a Resident at the displacement camp said, “We are feeling unsafe, and we need UNMISS patrols to increase and, also, for the camp to be securely fenced because, if people move outside, they can meet their deaths. We are not sure who the killers are, but we know they are around us.”
With the signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement and ceasefire in 2018, the security situation began to stabilize. In 2020, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) transitioned almost all the displacement sites, which had been under UN protection for seven years, into conventional camps under the responsibility of the Government.
However, with fears rising that the peace agreement will collapse and the country relapse into war, UNMISS has intensified its presence around and within the camps, patrolling by day and night, to reassure residents of their safety.
Lieutenant Moise Mutuyimana, UNMISS Rwanda Battalion III Patrol Commander, said, “Our mandate is protection of civilians, so that’s the main reason why we patrol during the night. Another main reason is to make the IDPs [internally displaced persons] feel secure and confident through our presence.”
The patrols are encountering some challenges, including access denials in some areas dominated by Government forces. While acknowledging their right and responsibility to ensure safety and security of their own citizens, it is also important for UN peacekeepers to be able to discharge their duty to protect civilians.
Christine Fossen, UNMISS Police Commissioner, said, “In light of the current security developments, we recognize through our engagements with the communities and the displaced persons, that they have some concerns about their safety and their future. As United Nations police, we have engaged through the communities, actively patrolling, being present in the areas, in an aim to help them feel safer.”
The community appreciates the enhanced efforts to secure the camp.
Kol Choul Kir, Displacement Camp Management Committee Chairman, said, “UNMISS is always around and responds when we need their presence, so they help us supporting us in the form of information, support us in also guarding the camp, those are the parts that UNMISS is helping us.”
Protection is only one part of UNMISS’ efforts to resolve the tensions. Intensive political engagement is also underway, alongside regional and international partners, to convince the country’s leaders to stop the fighting, return to the peace agreement, and move South Sudan forward together towards the better future it deserves.
