UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council stepped up calls Monday for regional troops in South Sudan, to help a UN contingent already there stem ongoing violence and stave off a brewing humanitarian crisis.
Olof Skoog, UN ambassador from Sweden, which holds the rotating Security Council presidency, said after a closed door meeting that the 15-member body was ramping up its earlier call for a speedy deployment of additional troops in the war-torn African nation.
“The members of the Security Council expressed deep concern that fighting continues throughout South Sudan, and that there are continued denials of humanitarian access to many regions of the country where the South Sudanese people are suffering and in need,” Skoog told reporters.
The Council urged the Juba government “to work constructively with the UN on a swift deployment of the regional protection force and to end obstructions” to the deployment of additional peacekeepers.
