On Peacekeepers Day, UN Vows to Protect South Sudanese

U.N. Special Representative for the Republic of South Sudan, Hilde Johnson, shown at a VOA town hall in Juba in March, says tthe deaths in an ambush of five U.N. peacekeepers from India and 7 staff members bolstered the U.N. mission's resolve to protect South Sudanese civilians.

UNMISS has tripled the number of troops it has in Jonglei state, where David Yau Yau's rebels have relaunched an insurgency.

Restive Jonglei state in South Sudan is one of the "greatest challenges" facing the U.N. mission in the country, U.N. Special Representative Hilde Johnson says.

A handout picture released by the UN on January 5, 2012 shows internally displaced persons resting in Pibor, Jonglei state after fleeing the surrounding areas following a wave of bloody ethnic violence.