SOUTH SUDAN –Peace begins when and where people feel safe.
In South Sudan, where intercommunal violence in several parts of the country kept being common in 2025, protecting civilians, not least by being visible and present where the risk of physical violence is real, is at the very core of our mandate.
Being there, and able to engage with residents of conflict-plagued towns and villages, requires Blue Helmets serving with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to conduct patrols of all sorts: in daylight or at night, travelling short or longer distances, for one or several days.
Last year, some of these protection missions, particularly in Jonglei and Upper Nile, were made possible by new all-terrain vehicles able to navigate areas where non-existent or virtually impassable roads used to require patrolling by air to reach remote locations.
Sometimes, however, even the most seasoned of peacekeepers and sturdiest of vehicles cannot make it to their destination, but that surely did not stop a team heading to faraway, isolated Romich in Warrap State from trying, trying even harder, and, in the process, making their arduous but prematurely aborted mission worthwhile anyway.
In 2025, difficult patrols were a near-constant feature in volatile Western Equatoria, but peacekeepers based there still managed to visit hard-to-reach villages like Bangasu and isolated Mosso reassuring fearful residents that they were not forgotten but very much taken into consideration when patrol schedules were planned.
Uniformed personnel who do security assessments at times find more insecurity than anyone could have wished for. Some of them, like the ones travelling to Marial-Lou, found themselves standing between guns and girls.
Through patient negotiations, these peacekeepers averted a likely crisis which would have endangered the lives of dozens of students trapped in a boarding school surrounded by armed youth.
In Renk in northern Upper Nile, another team achieved a near-miracle they swiftly responded to a call for life-saving help. Like a phoenix, a man rose not from the ashes but from the tons of soil that had accidentally buried him alive.
Sometimes, UNMISS establishes temporary operating bases in far-flung places. In April last year, the one in Abiemnhom in Unity State, run by peacekeepers from Mongolia, proved decisive in protecting hundreds of civilians seeking shelter from violent clashes.
Blue Helmets from Bangladesh believed that they were very temporarily staying at a military outpost in Thiet in Warrap State, pretty much as in the middle of nowhere as it gets. Unexpected developments meant that they ended up enduring considerable hardship for several months – while endearing themselves to host communities feeling safe.
These and other similar incidents go to show that sometimes, what truly matters is being there, which, in turn, frequently means going where few others do.
By Jaella Brockmann
