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More U.N. Peacekeepers Sought for South Sudan U.N. Chief Urges Steps to Calm South Sudan’s Growing Conflict
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — With thousands of frightened civilians seeking refuge at its peacekeeping bases in South Sudan, the United Nations is seeking a near doubling of the peacekeeping force in the strife-ridden African nation, two United Nations officials said on Monday. NAIROBI, Kenya — The new nation of South Sudan, created in an enormous international effort to end decades of conflict, moved closer to civil war on Monday, as the government vowed to storm cities under rebel control and the United Nations secretary general urged a major increase in peacekeepers to help protect the tens of thousands of civilians under siege there.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who signaled the need for reinforcements on Monday, has not said publicly how many additional troops he is seeking to secure South Sudan, the world’s youngest country. With an estimated 45,000 people huddled at United Nations compounds in the country, desperate to escape clashes that have killed hundreds or many more in the last week and even overran a peacekeeping base, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the Security Council to send a rapid wave of reinforcements, including attack helicopters and a near doubling of international forces.
But one U.N. official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing internal plans, said five additional battalions, two additional police units and attack helicopters were needed—an increase of 5,000 personnel. “The United Nations stood with you on your road to independence,” Mr. Ban said to the South Sudanese people. “We will stay with you now.”
The United Nations currently has 7,633 military personnel and police in South Sudan. It took decades of fighting, negotiation and diplomacy to forge the nation of South Sudan, but little more than a week of violent clashes and political brinkmanship to push it to the precipice.
American officials declined to say what support the United States would provide for an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force, saying the matter was currently under review within the Obama administration. South Sudan was born in the summer of 2011 with great hope and optimism, cheered on by global powers like the United States that helped shepherd it into existence. The new nation was carved out of Sudan to end one of Africa’s longest and costliest civil wars.
But the State Department made efforts to head off an increase in the fighting while the Pentagon strengthened its ability in the region to evacuate and protect the shrinking number of Americans in South Sudan. But the rivalry between two of South Sudan’s political leaders, President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar, along with the longstanding divisions between their ethnic groups, threaten what little cohesion holds the state together.
In Juba, the capital of South Sudan, the United States special envoy, Donald Booth met with President Salva Kiir on Monday and said he had secured a commitment from him to open talks with his principal rival, Riek Machar, a former vice president whom Mr. Kiir has accused of plotting a coup. As diplomats scrambled to get South Sudan’s colliding leaders to sit down for talks, Mr. Kiir’s government warned that it would march on a pair of strategic cities that it had lost to opposing forces. One lies in a state that is central to South Sudan’s oil production, a linchpin of the economy and the country’s hopes for future development. The other is home to a United Nations base where an estimated 17,000 people had taken shelter from thousands of encroaching militiamen.
“President Kiir committed to me that he was ready to begin talks with Riek Machar to end the crisis without preconditions as soon as his counterpart is willing,” Mr. Booth said in a telephone conference call with reporters. “The army is moving,” Col. Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the South Sudanese military, said of the government’s plans to retake the cities. “It is the army’s duty to restore stability.”
Mr. Machar has said that he is prepared for talks but that Mr. Kiir should release the political opponents he has detained first. United Nations officials told a closed meeting of the Security Council on Monday afternoon that fighting could break out within 48 hours in Bor, the site of the United Nations base, and that civilians had also begun to flee the nation’s capital, Juba, a diplomat said.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, stepped up its contingency planning to evacuate Americans and protect those that remain in South Sudan. “It seems as though the battle for Bor looms,” said Toby Lanzer, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, describing gunshots and skirmishes in the city during his visit there this weekend. “We took many, many measures to reinforce and to do everything we could to ensure that people seeking safety can get that from us.”
About 150 Marines and six transport aircraft are being sent this week from Spain to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, where American Special Operations Forces and other units are deployed. The fighting erupted last week in the capital after what Mr. Kiir described as an attempted coup by forces loyal to Mr. Machar, but it quickly spread to other parts of the country. Last week, United Nations officials said that 2,000 armed youths had overrun a United Nations base in the town of Akobo, killing at least 11 civilians seeking refuge there and two peacekeepers trying to protect them. An additional 20,000 civilians have crammed into the two United Nations compounds in Juba, frightened of arrest or attacks by state security forces if they left.
The Marines as well as a 150-member rapid-response force already located in Djibouti are on alert and can deploy to South Sudan to protect Americans there on six-hours’ notice, a Pentagon official said on Monday. The Pentagon created the Marine element in Spain and the emergency force in Djibouti in the wake of the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, to enable American troops to respond to crises in the region more rapidly. As the situation deteriorated, three American aircraft flying into South Sudan to evacuate American citizens in Bor were attacked on Saturday morning and forced to turn back. Four service members were wounded, one seriously.
The move was hinted at in a letter President Obama sent to Congressional leaders on Sunday in which he said that he might take “further action” to support American citizens and interests in the strife-ridden region. On Monday, the Pentagon said that it was stepping up its planning to evacuate Americans and protect those who remain in South Sudan. About 150 Marines and six transport aircraft are being sent from Spain to Djibouti, where an emergency force was created in the wake of the deadly attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.
“We were able to evacuate all Americans who presented themselves at the U.N. camp in Bor,” a State Department official said, referring to the capital of South Sudan’s northern Jonglei state, among the most unstable in the country. “We will continue to work to confirm whether there are any remaining American citizens in Bor who need to be evacuated.” The move was hinted at in a letter President Obama sent to congressional leaders on Sunday in which he said that he might take “further action” to support American citizens and interests in the strife-ridden region.
In a sign that the conflict in South Sudan continues to escalate, the country’s military asserted that it will attempt to retake a pair of strategic cities under rebel control. “We were able to evacuate all Americans who presented themselves at the U.N. camp in Bor,” a State Department official said, referring to the capital of Jonglei State in South Sudan, among the most unstable in the country. “We will continue to work to confirm whether there are any remaining American citizens in Bor who need to be evacuated.”
“The army is moving toward Bor,” said Col. Philip Aguer, spokesman for the military. “It is the army’s duty to restore stability, in Bor and Bentiu.” The United States also put forward a Security Council resolution on Monday to approve Mr. Ban’s plea for more international peacekeepers. There are currently more than 7,600 United Nations military personnel and police officers in the country, and the measure would increase that number to more than 13,000, drawn from other peacekeeping missions already deployed on the continent in places like Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo. French and American diplomats said that there was widespread support for Mr. Ban’s recommendations and that the resolution would come up for a vote on Tuesday afternoon.
The fighting began last week in the capital of Juba after what President Kiir described as an attempted coup and quickly spread to other parts of the country. Rebels loyal to Mr. Machar are in control of several strategic locations, including the towns of Bor and Bentiu. “The leaders of South Sudan face a stark choice,” said Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the United Nations. “They can return to the political dialogue and spirit of cooperation that helped establish South Sudan, or they can destroy those hard-fought gains and tear apart their newborn nation.”
Toby Lanzer, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, described gunshots and skirmishes in Bor during his visit there over the weekend. “The situation is tense. There are lots of reports, difficult to verify, of columns moving toward the city,” said Mr. Lanzer. “It seems as though the battle for Bor looms.” Diplomats from Africa, the United States and elsewhere have tried to bring the warring parties to the table, hoping to cobble together a cease-fire before the cycle of violence gathers momentum and leads to a protracted civil war.
He said that there were reports of fighting in Bentiu, the capital of Unity State, and in Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile. Doctors Without Borders also reported fighting in Bentiu, with dozens wounded. Even before its birth as an independent nation, South Sudan, one of the poorest nations in the world, had long been strained by political and ethnic tensions that have threatened to undermine it.
Concerns are growing that ethnic violence is creating a cycle of conflict that, unless it can be halted, will grow into a civil war. The latest political skirmish surfaced when the president, Mr. Kiir, summarily fired his entire cabinet in July, including Mr. Machar. Some opponents have dismissed his allegations of a coup attempt last week as a mere pretext to crack down on the political opposition. Critics of Mr. Machar, by contrast, see him as an opportunist who switched sides during the civil war against Sudan to gain advantages for himself, before becoming vice president when South Sudan seceded in 2011.
Mr. Ban, the secretary-general said 45,000 civilians are seeking shelter at the United Nations headquarters in the country. He called for “boosting the protection capacity” of the roughly uniformed personnel on the ground. He declined to answer how many more he would call for. Both sides have expressed a willingness to negotiate, but Mr. Machar has insisted that he will go to the negotiating table only when his political allies who have been detained are released. Mr. Kiir has insisted that he enter negotiations without preconditions.
He said he had been calling member countries to contribute more troops to the South Sudan mission, which is a time-consuming affair, and considering diverting troops from other United Nations peacekeeping operations “while taking care not to reduce their capacity to respond to threats where they operate.” Mr. Lanzer, the United Nations coordinator, said he was worried about the humanitarian situation, which he said grew more precarious as civilians fled their homes and hid in the bush to escape the violence.
He also called on President Kiir and his rivals to seek a political solution to their dispute, which has led to an explosion of ethnic killings in the last four days. “Now is the time for South Sudan’s leaders to show their people and the world that they are, above all, committed to preserving the unity of the nation that was born out of their long struggle for independence,” Mr. Ban said. “They can withstand a short-term shock, but they can’t stand it for very long,” Mr. Lanzer said. “I’m more and more worried if this situation persists.”
Mr. Lanzer, the humanitarian coordinator, has called for added assistance from donors and member states, including more troops, more helicopters and better intelligence in their efforts to try to keep the situation under control. Surveillance pictures could mean more drones, as peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are using already, or satellite pictures which U.S. and others could help with quickly.

Nicholas Kulish reported from Nairobi, Kenya, Michael R. Gordon from Washington, and Somini Sengupta from Los Angeles. Isma’il Kushkush contributed reporting from Khartoum, Sudan, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

There are an estimated 20,000 people in two United Nations peacekeeping compounds in Juba. Another 7,000 have taken refuge in Bentiu. Perhaps the greatest concern centers on Bor, where 17,000 people are under United Nations protection at the base there, which Mr. Lanzer visited.
“We took many, many measures to reinforce and to do everything we could to ensure that people seeking safety can get that from us,” Mr. Lanzer said.
Mr. Lanzer said he was worried about the humanitarian situation, which was precarious as people fled their homes and hid in the bush to get away from violence.
“They can withstand a short-term shock but they can’t stand it for very long,” Mr. Lanzer said. “I’m more and more worried if this situation persists.”

Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Kulish from Nairobi, Kenya, Isma’il Kushkush from Khartoum, Sudan, and Somini Sengupta from New York.