South Sudan spells out unresolved UN protection force issues

South Sudan still needs to agree the number and nationality of United Nations peacekeepers for a protection force, a government minister said on Tuesday, a day after President Salva Kiir approved the deployment in a bid to avoid a UN arms embargo.

Kiir publicly consented to the protection force, authorised by the UN Security Council last month, after meeting with council envoys, led by US Ambassador Samantha Power, on Sunday in Juba. However, a joint statement after the meeting noted that the details of the troop deployment still needed to worked out.