South Sudan President rejects any additional foreign peacekeepers

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir will not allow any more foreign military intervention in the current political crisis.

Kiir who spoke in Juba after a meeting with an international mediation body, said the ceasefire currently being enjoyed will hold even as he pursued convincing his Vice President Riek Machar to return to the capital.

“The UNMISS here has so many foreign troops, so we will not accept even a single soldier, we will not accept that,” the president declared.

President Kiir said that the foreign troops in the country were already beyond the required number. Currently there are 12,000-strong UNMISS force in the Africa’s youngest country.

The regional trade block Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) had called for the U.N. mission UNMISS to be given a stronger mandate to enforce peace in South Sudan and called for extra troops to keep order.

The United Nations said it was ready to work with IGAD on the proposals after thousands of civilians in Juba fled to U.N. bases in the capital to seek refuge. However, Kiir dismissed these plans.

Machar and his troops withdrew to the outskirts of Juba after fighting between his forces and those loyal to the president plunged the nation into its worst crisis since the end of a two-year civil war.