The UN Mission in South Sudan (Minuss) announced Tuesday the reduction this year of its staff by 7% due to the decrease in violence in this country emerging from a terrible civil war.
"In the coming year, the numbers of our military and police will be reduced by around 7%,"
Minuss chief David Shearer said at his last press conference after four years. to this post.
Read also: The IMF grants an emergency loan of 174 million dollars to South Sudan.
He explained this decision by the decrease in violence since the signing of a peace agreement in 2018 and the withdrawal, announced in September, of UN forces from camps sheltering some 180,000 civilians fleeing the fighting, handed over to the government.
Minuss currently has some 14,500 soldiers and 2,000 police officers.
"The peace process remains fragile and there is still a lot to do,"
warned David Shearer, adding that the numbers could be revised upwards if necessary.
A ceasefire signed in September 2018 and the formation in February 2020 of a government of national unity between sworn enemies Salva Kiir and Riek Machar ended more than six years of civil war, but many regions remain ravaged by localized conflicts.
South Sudan sank into civil war in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused Riek Machar, his former vice-president, of plotting a coup.
The conflict, marked by atrocities and the use of rape as a weapon of war, has left more than 380,000 dead and millions displaced.
David Shearer called on South Sudanese leaders to relaunch the implementation of the largely dead letter, notably through the entry into force of a new Constitution, the formation of a national army and economic reforms .
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