Südsudan

[…] "Now is not the time to take our eyes off the ball in South Sudan," Nicholas Haysom, head of the U.N. Mission in South Sudan, told the U.N. Security Council. "What we can learn from Sudan is how quickly hard-won peace gains can unravel." This is a critical year for the world's youngest country. A new constitution must be drafted and preparations completed for the first national elections scheduled for December 2024.

The cross-border impact of the crisis in Sudan is unfurling along multiple fronts, and action is urgently needed to ease rising tensions that has already resulted in deadly clashes, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for South Sudan told the Security Council on Tuesday.

A local representative says at least 13 people are dead and 21 have been wounded in clashes at a United Nations site in South Sudan for the protection of displaced civilians. The fighting erupted Thursday morning in the Malakal site between members of the Shilluk and Nuer ethnic groups.

[…] The alliance, operating under South Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SSFDA), claimed President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar were not ready to implement the peace agreement because they are using the 2018 accord as a strategy to remain in power to enrich themselves and members of their families.

The report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan details how perpetrators of the most serious crimes - including widespread attacks against civilians and extrajudicial killings - go unpunished, with senior Government officials and military implicated in serious violations. 

[…] The appeal comes after a convoy of more than 100 trucks transporting food and other assistance was ambushed on Friday in Jonglei state. … The attacked marked the latest in a series of escalating incidents targeting convoys and aid workers in the country, the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said on Monday.

[…] At least 3,469 civilians reported having been affected by violence during 2022, including killings, injuries, abduction and conflict-related sexual violence. The brief reveals that while the number of violent incidents attributed to the parties to the conflict declined by 37 per cent in comparison to 2021, the number of victims increased by 58 per cent.

The Security Council today decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan for one year, as two delegates abstained over the incorporation of certain language while raising issues regarding the penholder’s approach.

This report looks at the transition of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan’s (UNMISS) security sector reform (SSR) activities to international and national actors. Many required SSR activities in South Sudan remain at a very early stage.