South Sudan spells out unresolved U.N. protection force issues

By Denis Dumo and Michelle Nichols JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan still needs to agree the number and nationality of United Nations peacekeepers for a protection force, a government minister said on Tuesday, a day after President Salva Kiir approved the deployment in a bid to avoid a U.N. arms embargo. Kiir publicly consented to the protection force, authorized by the U.N. Security Council last month, after meeting with council envoys, led by U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, on Sunday in Juba. Government spokesperson Michael Makuei said on Monday the country also needed to "agree on the armament, we need to agree on the deployment, we need to agree on the time frame." In the wake of deadly violence in Juba in mid-July between Kiir's troops and soldiers loyal to opposition leader Riek Machar, the Security Council authorized a 4,000-strong regional protection force as part of the 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission already on the ground, known as UNMISS.