Can more peacekeepers stop the violence in South Sudan?

Under intense pressure, South Sudan on Sunday agreed to a United Nations deployment of a new 4,000-member peacekeeping force. But the country’s government already is attempting to undermine the agreement, creating exceptions and refusing to finalize the deployment details.

The peacekeeping force will primarily protect civilians in the capital, Juba, where renewed fighting and unrest in July prompted the United Nations Security Council to push for more peacekeepers in the country.

“The Security Council came to achieve what we have secured,” U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said.

Cabinet Minister Martin Ella Lomuro said yesterday the South Sudanese government is yet to agree on the number of troops, the arms they carry, and their country of origin. Minister of Information Michael Makuei said South Sudan is not duty-bound to accept all the troops. The 4,000 peacekeepers are a maximum, he said, and South Sudan could choose to only accept 10 of them.

“If we don’t accept it, if we don’t agree with that, nobody will enter South Sudan,” Makuei said. “Anybody who enters without our consent is an invader.”

South Sudan had earlier rejected the peacekeeping force as a violation of its sovereignty. But the UN Security Council threatened to impose an arms embargo on the country if it refused to comply. The UN already has some 12,000 peacekeepers in South Sudan.

The South Sudanese government also agreed to implement a hybrid court to investigate war crimes. President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar had a bitter disagreement in 2013 that triggered the young country’s civil war and accusations of human rights abuses against both leaders, who are from different ethnic groups. After a period of relative calm, fighting erupted again in the capital in July when hundreds died and many feared a resurgence of the civil war. In the same month, South Sudanese soldiers attacked and raped several civilians and foreigners in a hotel compound. The soldiers singled out people from the same ethnic group as Machar and killed them.

But some analysts are skeptical over the difference more peacekeepers will make. Ebrahim Deen, a researcher with the Afro-Middle East Center in South Africa, said it could do more harm than good, since sending more peacekeepers only adds to the military solution that has proven inefficient.

“We need to find a solution that it more political than military,” Deen said. “International communities need to put more pressure on the political parties.”