UNMISS, South Sudan A special ceremony marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers in Juba, South Sudan - Photos by Isaac Billy/UNMISS

The National Minister of Information, Michael Makuei, has reiterated the government’s demand that the UN Mission in South Sudan should relocate its offices from the vicinity of Juba International Airport.

Makuei said UNMISS has been refusing to cooperate with the government’s directive to have the airport offices transferred to its designated land in Jebel, along the Juba-Yei road.

He described the mission as ‘intransigent’ in terms of the level of compliance, adding that UNMISS is only a guest in South Sudan, and should not behave otherwise.

Makuei said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has already issued a new warning to the peacekeeping mission to move out of the airport vicinity.

“There is a dispute between us and these people over the airport. These people are supposed to move out from there since about four or five years ago, the UN,” he told reporters.

“We have a conflict with the UN here, because we told them that this land which they are occupying we need it for two reasons, once, part of it belongs to individuals, the other part of it belongs to the airport and we are expanding the airport So please move out of this place.”

Following South Sudan’s independence on 9th July 2011, the UN Security Council established the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to consolidate peace and security and to help establish conditions for development.

UNMISS is one of the UN’s largest peacekeeping missions in the world with 17,954 total deployed personnel, according to statistics released in 2023.

These include 13,221 troops, 200 experts on mission, 1,468 police personnel, 2,268 civilians, 389 staff officers, and 408 UN Volunteers.

“They are intransigent, these are other people who have also decided to be intransigent, they don’t want to move out of the airport place,” Makuei said about UNMISS.

“We have been saying by the way, that you are our employees because we are members of the UN, this is one, number two, you are our guest. Where is it in the world where a guest will come and say I must be here, and not there if it is not in South Sudan?”

“We are in crisis with them (UN). Not they are insisting and refusing to move out of that place, meanwhile they have a big land over there (Jebel), they don’t want to go there because they want to be near the airport, their planes are not being sent away but the residence must move there.”