South Sudan

UN human rights experts have warned of increased political violence and polarization between communities across the world’s youngest country, South Sudan, following a fact-finding visit there this week. 

Although internal conflict erupted within the world’s youngest country after independence in 2011, Radio Miraya, the news service launched by the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan in 2005, has stuck fast to its original mandate of trying to bring the country together, becoming the most popular and trusted source of information in the country to this day.

[…] But analysts, conflict monitoring groups, and local residents say the peace agreement has in fact caused a significant escalation in violence, as commanders and politicians compete for power in a transitional government based in the capital, Juba, by fighting wars in the peripheries – conflicts that international actors, including a billion-dollar UN mission in the country, and the United Nations Security Council, which has sanctioned South Sudan, often chalk down to communities fighting each other.

The attack reportedly occurred on Sunday when armed youth from the Murle community carried out cattle raids in two villages in Baidit, UNMISS said, citing various independent sources, including the independent Human Rights Commission. Some 32 people from the Dinka Bor community were killed.

A South Sudanese break-away military group of the main opposition party, the Sudan People Liberation Army – In Opposition (SPLA-IO), has shifted allegiance to President Salva Kiir in what seems to be a violation of the 2018 peace agreement.  

Ahead of the March 2022 renewal of the mandate for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network (EPON) conducted an assessment focused on two core mandate areas: protection of civilians (PoC) and support for the peace process.

At least 24 people have been killed in the last few days following clashes between Messiraya nomads from Sudan and residents of Aweil East County of Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal State of South Sudan, the state’s Information Minister confirmed on Wednesday.

South Sudan’s government wants millions of people who fled the country’s devastating civil war to return home ahead of national elections tentatively scheduled for 2023. But some humanitarians worry that returns could be risky, as violence continues to flare around the country despite a 2018 peace agreement and the subsequent formation of a unity government.

South Sudan has secured funds for the formation of the unified force paving the way for progress in the delayed implementation of the security arrangements.

South Sudan’s peace is facing a new challenge as an agreement on the electoral programme to end the current Unity government and usher in a democratically elected administration is delayed.