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VI. Protection of Civilians by the
UN Mission in South Sudan
The UN Mission in South Sudan had a mandate to use force to ‘protect civilians under
imminent threat of physical violence’, within its capabilities and in its areas of deployment
since its inception in 2011. But until the new war began the mission focused on its other key
mandate: to assist state building by working closely with government, including police and
army. 182 Over the past years, the mission has showed itself to be unwilling to criticize the
government publicly, including when government forces committed serious human rights
violations and authorities failed to provide justice for victims. 183 This contributed to a lack of
accountability for abusive soldiers and their leaders. Implementation of the mission’s
protection of civilian mandate also suffered from too-few troops and a lack of clarity over
where and under what circumstances peacekeepers would engage militarily to protect
civilians. 184 In practice, in both the current war and during instability or violence that preceded
it, peacekeepers have protected civilians that sought sanctuary in their bases but have rarely
intervened otherwise. In the current conflict under-protected areas include the vicinities
immediately around the bases and in towns where high levels of abuse has continued, both
during attacks and violent occupations and during periods of relative stability.
The importance of providing sanctuary in bases in conflict areas where civilians often have
no other safety at all cannot be underestimated. In immediately opening its gates to tens
of thousands of terrified people in December 2013 and allowing them to shelter in their
bases for many months, UNMISS potentially saved thousands of lives sometimes at the
price of endangering its own staff. 185
182 UNMISS’ mandate has since been changed (see below). The original mandate was described in United Nations Security
Council, Resolution 1996 (2011), S/RES/1996 (2011).
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/unmis/documents/sres1996_2011.pdf (accessed June 2, 2014)
183 For example, UNMISS failed to report publicly on brutal government reprisals on Murle civilians, including unlawful killings
and other violations close to UN bases in Jonglei in 2012 and 2013. This was despite it becoming evident that a pattern of
unchecked violations by SPLA were taking place. UNMISS also never reported publicly on the killing and injuring of more than 20
peaceful protestors in December 2012 by government security forces, an event that quickly became a watershed moment for
freedom of expression in South Sudan. In both cases human rights officers investigated the unlawful killings. See Human Rights
Watch “They Are Killing Us”, September 2013. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/09/12/they-are-killing-us, p41.
184 UNMISS civilian staff have commented that the lack of public statements by the mission 2011 – 2013 clearly stating that
attacks on civilians were unacceptable to the mission helped discourage peacekeepers from militarily intervening, and so
risk their lives, to protect civilians.
185 As described above, UN bases have been attacked during the conflict. Especially in the early days of the crisis,
surrounded by hostile forces and often without support from humanitarian agencies, mission staff struggled to provide
emergency health care, food and water under enormous stress. As well as protecting people in its bases, UNMISS has also
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