South Sudan peace monitors on Sunday called for speedy investigations into the violence in Upper Nile State and the attack on a UN helicopter on Friday that led to the death of a UN personnel and dozens of soldiers.
The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), which strongly condemned the violence in Upper Nile State and the attack on the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) helicopter during an evacuation mission in Nasir County, urged the warring parties to cease hostilities and engage in dialogue to foster peace in the country.
“RJMEC calls upon all the parties involved to immediately cease any further hostilities, give dialogue a chance, and ensure calm is quickly restored,” the monitors said in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The fighting in Nasir, a strategic town, has escalated tensions since March 3, leading to the arrest of senior government and military officials from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), which is led by First Vice President Riek Machar.
The international community has expressed deep concern over the recent developments in Juba, warning that they threaten the fragile unity government formed under a 2018 peace deal that ended the country’s five-year civil war.
Over 20 people have so far been reported killed, and several others injured on the outskirts of Nasir, now deserted, located on the border between South Sudan and Ethiopia.
The RJMEC urged the unity government to take all necessary actions to de-escalate the situation. It also called on the Joint Defence Board, a vital institution of the 2018 peace deal responsible for the command and control of all forces, to diligently exercise its functions and responsibilities over all the organized forces.
Additionally, the RJMEC called on the National Transitional Committee, a body tasked to oversee the implementation of the 2018 peace deal, to expeditiously fast-track the unification and deployment of all forces to maintain peace throughout the country to avert the recurrence of such incidents in the future.
