Südsudan

The Troika and European Union (EU) member states have welcomed South Sudan’s leaders’ commitment to the full implementation of the September 2018 revitalised peace agreement. Last week, five South Sudanese political parties to the September 2018 peace deal signed a roadmap extending the current transitional period for two additional years, citing failure to complete critical benchmarks as agreed.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has expressed concerns that cases of conflict-related sexual violence are emerging, despite a decline in the number of civilians affected by violence across the country.

[…] The September 2018 revitalized peace agreement requires the parties to train and graduate a unified force of 83,000 personnel to take charge of security during the transitional period until 2023 when elections are held. The unification of the army has been delayed amid missed deadlines.

South Sudan opposition parties and government have agreed to fully implement the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) and ensure all armed forces and its affiliates under its command and control at all times observe the CoHA, particularly provisions of prohibited acts.

Setting a timetable for South Sudan’s general elections requires international support, a top United Nations official said. … Haysom said it was difficult for anybody to help when there is no timetable to guide the process and commitment from the international community.

With eight months remaining, the window of opportunity is closing for South Sudan to meet critical benchmarks required to complete its transition away from long-running civil conflict, the Special Representative for the country told the Security Council on Monday, pressing parties to the November 2018 peace deal, to implement their commitments in letter and spirit.

Adeyinka Badejo-Sanogo, WFP Acting Country Director in South Sudan, said they had planned to provide food assistance to 6.2 million people this year, “but faced with increasing humanitarian needs and insufficient funding, we have taken the painful step to suspend food assistance to 1.7 million people.

The UN Security Council on Thursday renewed an arms embargo and sanctions against South Sudan amid continuing unrest in the country. … When the embargo was last extended a year ago, authorities in South Sudan were given a list of political and security conditions in order for the restrictions to be lifted or relaxed. However, earlier this month, a UN expert panel recommended that the embargo remain in place over persistent ceasefire violations as well as over the government’s imports of armored vehicles in violation of the ban.

Additional peacekeepers have been deployed to Leer county, South Sudan, following a surge of violence, including rapes, gang rapes, beheadings, burning civilians alive, and attacks on humanitarians, the UN Mission in the country, UNMISS, reported on Monday. 

Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Country Director in South Sudan, spoke to UN News about how fallout from what he called the “era-defining’” war in Ukraine is being felt thousands of kilometres away.