The United States has urged parties to the South Sudan conflict to swiftly resolve outstanding issues and form a Transitional National Unity Government as scheduled in February.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy has held talks with South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, opposition leader Riek Machar and a number of officials in Juba.
He called on all parties to form the Transitional National Unity Government on Feb. 12 and stressed Washington’s rejection of a proposal submitted by South Africa’s deputy president David Mabuza, who is leading the mediation, to resolve the problem on the number of states and their boundaries through arbitration after 90 days.
The armed opposition rejected participating in the government before the outstanding issues on security arrangements and the number of states and borders are resolved.
Kiir and Machar have earlier agreed to extend the period to form the transitional government from Nov. 12 until Feb. 12.
They both signed, along with a number of opposition factions, a peace agreement in September 2018 to end the five-year civil war, which killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than two million.
Meanwhile, the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it is willing to deploy more troops in Juba and troubled areas in the country but asked for a collective agreement.
On Jan. 17, head of the SPLM-IO Defense Committee Angelina Teny proposed to deploy UN forces in the capital and troubled areas such as Yei and Juba-Nimule route.
In response to this request, the head of UNMISS, David Shearer, told reporters on Thursday that the peacekeeping mission is ready to deploy more troops during the roll-out of the newly trained unified forces.
The United Nations now has the capacity to increase its presence to support disarmament and confidence-building, Shearer said.
“But, any change in our deployment should come as a request agreed by all the parties,” he added, noting that their role remains supportive to the South Sudanese forces.
“Maintaining security and law enforcement will always remain the government’s core responsibility. The UN cannot and will not play that role,” he stressed.
