The request  will go the U.N. Security Council.

ends intro

The African heads of state gathered in Kigali were responding to a communiqué issued by IGAD Plus.

The body represents East African countries plus Rwanda, South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria.

It  called on the U.N. Security Council to extend the U.N. mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, with a revised mandate.

That revised mandate, it specified, should include the deployment of a regional protection force to separate South Sudan’s warring parties.

AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Smail Chergui says the AU envisions sending an African force with a robust peace enforcement mandate to South Sudan like the African intervention brigade in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

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