Peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. Photo X
Because of US budget cuts to the United Nations, the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), like similar operations worldwide, is under pressure to implement a 25-percent cut in the coming months to uniformed personnel supporting the mission.
South Sudan, the world's youngest country, disintegrated into a violent civil war between 2013 and 2018, which resulted in approximately 400,000 deaths and four million people displaced.
A power-sharing agreement allowed for the return of a precarious calm. But since early 2025, violent clashes have erupted between the camps of President Salva Kiir and his Vice President Riek Machar, who was arrested in March.
The UNMISS contingency plan, now being implemented, calls for the closure of certain field offices and bases, repatriation of uniformed personnel, and reduction of national and international staff, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, head of UN Peace Operations, told a Security Council meeting.
During a visit to the capital, Juba, in mid-October, he said he had secured the support of South Sudanese authorities for these measures.
But days later, the government notified UNMISS and outlined "a series of conditions that are not only impractical but pose a serious threat to the viability of the plan, and potentially to the Mission itself," Lacroix said.
"Unless there is greater understanding and flexibility from the Government, the Mission's ability to fulfill its mandate will be severely compromised, and frankly, the future of that mission is totally at stake," he added.
He did not go into detail about the conditions.
UNMISS was created in 2011 at the time of South Sudan's birth. In July, before the troop reduction plan, it had more than 13,000 soldiers and 1,500 police officers, according to the peacekeeping operations website.
Cecilia Adeng, South Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations, said her country took note of the financial constraints affecting peacekeeping operations, as she called on the global body to keep the South Sudanese closely informed about changes to the UNMISS mission.
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