South Sudan Accepts Deployment of Extra 4,000 UN Peace Keepers

South Sudan has accepted the deployment of 4,000 troops to the United Nations mission in the nation, and agreed to lift all restrictions on the peace keepers as well as free movement for humanitarian workers in the country, a government official said.

The government of South Sudan will also work with the African Union to establish a court to try crimes committed since December when violence broke out in the nation, Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomoro told reporters on Sunday in the capital, Juba.

“The transitional government of national unity gave its consent for the deployment,” Lomoro said.

A UN Security Council delegation arrived in South Sudan on September 2, three weeks after the body approved 4,000 extra regional peace keepers for the world’s youngest country, where resurgent violence since December killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 2 million from their homes, threatening a return to all-out civil war.

In a vote on August 12, the council renewed the UN Mission’s mandate and increased the number of peace keepers deployed in the oil-producing nation to 17, 000. The UN said it would consider an arms embargo if the South Sudanese government objected to deployment of the force.

A transitional government between President Salva Kiir and ex-rebel leader Riek Machar, designed to end the conflict was thrown into turmoil in July when another round of violence between forces loyal to them left at least 270 people dead. Machar and his forces fled Juba and is currently in neighboring Sudan. He said he will only return to Juba if regional forces are deployed.