AlHijjah 3, 1435, Sep 27, 2014, SPA -- South Sudan's President Salva Kiir raised concerns on Saturday about U.N. peacekeepers focusing on protecting civilians amid renewed violence, as instructed by the U.N. Security Council, instead of state-building in the world's newest nation, Reuters reported. Fighting erupted in South Sudan in December after months of tension sparked by Kiir's decision to fire rival and former Vice President Riek Machar. Deep ethnic divisions have also fueled the violence, pitting Kiir's Dinka people against Machar's Nuer. "My government would like to raise its concern regarding the recent mandate of UNMISS (the U.N. mission) which has serious implications in service delivery to my people," Kiir told the 193-member United Nations General Assembly. He complained that the U.N. mission was no longer helping the authorities of South Sudan, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011, with capacity building, peace-building, security sector reforms, recovery and development. The U.N. Security Council authorized peacekeepers in May to give priority to the protection of civilians in decisions about the use of available capacity and resources within the mission. The council doubled the number of peacekeepers in late December to 12,500 troops when fighting broke out. Kiir asked the 15-member Security Council to reconsider the changes it made to the U.N. peacekeeping mission when it renews the mission at the end of November. But U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said "now is not the time to think about building state institutions," which he said often had ties to human rights violations. -- SPA 23:40 LOCAL TIME 20:40 GMT تغريد
