UN Security Council extends UN mission in South Sudan for one additional year

The UN Security Council has renewed for one year the UN mission in South Sudan where close to 20,000 forces have been stationed.
Thirteen out fifteen members voted Wednesday in favor of the resolution that extends the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) until 15 March 2024.
China and Russia abstained.
According to a UN statement, the mission, one of the most expensive in the world with an annual budget of 1.2 billion dollars, “will maintain its force at a ceiling level of 17 000 troops and 2 101 police officers”.
Africa’s youngest state, born in 2011 plunged into civil war in 2013. The war ended in 2018 and claimed at least 380 000 lives.
President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar formed a transitional government and agreed to unite their forces into a single army to protect their people, who have been hard hit by conflict and climatic disasters.
The country is still hallowing into a fragile peace and armed violence.