REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK -- The first reinforcements to the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan are expected to arrive within two days, the world body's special envoy to the violence-wracked country, Hilde Johnson, said Thursday.

The UN Security Council agreed to nearly double the size of the mission known as UNMISS, allowing for up to 12,500 soldiers and 1,300 police.

"We are working around the clock to get assets," which will come from other UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, notably in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan's Darfur region and Liberia, Johnson said.

"We are working on 48 hours delivery of several of the critical assets that we need," she told a press conference.

Both manpower and equipment would be sent, Johnson said, without offering further details. Helicopters and a military transport plane are eventually expected to be deployed to South Sudan.

Johnson spoke of an urgent need to get the additional support as soon as possible to the UN's overtaxed mission in the country, which has been roiled by days of deadly ethnic violence.

Tens of thousands of civilians have sought protection at UN bases amid a wave of ethnic violence pitting members of President Salva Kiir's Dinka tribe against rival Riek Machar's Nuer clansmen.

"At this point in time, the military is overstretched with the current protection... of civilians in our camps," she said.

"All peacekeepers are under instruction to use force when civilians are under imminent threat."

Earlier this week, the top UN humanitarian official in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, put the death toll "in the thousands", but Johnson said he had been misquoted.

"The UN coordinator estimated well over a thousand killed, maybe more, and we do agree with that," she said, acknowledging she could not offer a precise death toll.

Efforts continued to achieve a truce, but "so far I have not heard that any breakthrough happened today," she added, reiterating the UN's call that anyone guilty of committing acts of violence be brought to justice.

"It is essential that all perpetrators of such violations are held accountable," Johnson said.

"All those violations are being looked into by our human rights division," which will conduct "a solid investigation process," she said.

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