The government says it has ‘consented’ to the deployment of the regional protection force in South Sudan, after it rejected the UN resolution, describing it as a violation of its sovereignty.

This latest development was announced at the end of a meeting between the 15-members of the UN Security Council with President Salva Kiir and his cabinet in Juba Sunday night.

The Transitional Government of National Unity and the Security Council issued a joint communique on the deployment of the 4,000 robust force which the Council authorized earlier last month.

Addressing the media at the end of the meeting, Cabinet Affairs Minister Dr Martin Elia Lomoro said the government has “no objection” to the deployment of the regional troops.

Ambassador Samantha Power, the US Permanent Representative to the UN and the co-team leader of the Security Council’s delegation to Juba, confirmed that the Council and the government indeed reached an agreement on the deployment of the protection force.

But she says there is a need for urgent consultations on the modalities for the deployment of the forces, and said the challenge for the government is to ensure that the agreement they have reached is operationalized.

“The government agreed to work with UNMISS on some of the impediments that have existed and interfered with UNMISS living up to its potential,” Amb Power told the media.

“So I think that the challenge now is to ensure that this piece of paper becomes operationalized, that the Regional Protection Force is deployed.”

The Security Council’s delegation will leave for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa this morning to meet with the African Union’s Peace and Security Council and the IGAD for further consultations on the protection force.

It’s unclear why the government eventually accepted the deployment of the force, but analysts believe that the government had to choose between an arms embargo and the regional force.