{{Hilde Johnson, the head of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has officially announced she is leaving the world’s youngest nation in July this year.}}
The special representative of the secretary-general disclosed this at a meeting with president Salva Kiir on Friday.
“I informed the president that by Independence Day in July, I will have completed my three years as special representative, which is much more than usual for an SRSG in a peacekeeping mission of this nature, and in particular also with the crisis that we’ve gone through”, Johnson said in a statement.
“I informed the president that I have come to the end of my term and I will be departing South Sudan”, she further added.
Johnson’s surprise decision comes just days after the UN Security Council (UNSC) extended its South Sudan mission mandate with focus on civilian protection, the need to address security and the humanitarian situation worsened by the political crisis in the young nation.
The UNSC, in a resolution issued onTuesday, extended the mission’s mandate until 30 November 2014, and authorised it to use “all necessary means” to protect civilians, monitor and investigate human rights, create the conditions for delivery of humanitarian assistance, and support the implementation of the cessation of hostilities agreement.
The UNMISS boss, however, said she discussed with president Kiir the mission’s new mandate passed by the Security Council on Tuesday, while informing the South Sudanese leader about UNSC members’ decision to pass the course for the resolution.
Members of the UNSC, Johnson stressed, consulted and informed the South Sudan’s foreign affairs ministry on several occasions prior to the resolution issued this week.
sudantribune
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