IDPs during the protests. |Courtesy

Internally Displaced Persons in Bentiu took the street on Monday morning, protesting the decision by the UN to withdraw troops from some POCs.

Early this month, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan said it had begun withdrawing its troops from POCs in Bor and Wau, leaving them under the jurisdiction of the government of South Sudan.

The decision was reached after insecurity threats in those areas had subsided, said UNMISS Head David Shearer.

The decision led to a protest in Bor last week, with the IDPs demanding UNMISS to reconsider its decision.

Other IDPs in UN camps across the country also voiced their concerns, saying withdrawal of UN troops from camps will leave them vulnerable.

“They don’t want UN troops to be withdrawn from the PoC, because security provisions have not yet been implemented. Secondly we don’t trust our police in South Sudan,” said Yien Depor, representative of the protesters in the Bentiu POC site.

He said the UN should wait until state governments are formed, and security arrangements implemented before handing over the camps to South Sudanese authorities.

There are currently 115,960 IDPs seeking protection in the Bentiu site.

The camp is one of five created to protect civilians at the height of the country’s civil war that started in December 2013.