South Sudan ready for new UN force deployment any time
South Sudan's government has said it is ready to accept the deployment of a UN regional protection force at any time, after fighting in the capital in July threatened to plunge the nation back into a full-scale civil war.
South Sudan has been under international pressure to accept the force, which will help the existing UN mission UNMISS stabilise the five-year-old nation, where civil conflict erupted in December 2013 and a peace deal in 2015 failed to stick.
President Salva Kiir consented in principle to the protection force in September, but officials said at the time that details still needed to be worked out. Deputy Information Minister Akol Paul Kordit reported that the cabinet agreed on outstanding issues in a ministerial meeting on Friday, although he did not list the specifics.
