Südsudan

[…] After failing to fully implement the 2018 revitalised peace agreement, the signatories extended its term for 24 months to allow for better preparation for elections in December 2024. … There are major political and logistical challenges in the way of an election in South Sudan. Resolving them will require hard choices and difficult trade-offs.

Action is needed now to pave the way for timely and credible elections in South Sudan next December, the UN Special Representative for the country told journalists in the capital, Juba, on Wednesday. “With only 17 months remaining on the Roadmap timelines before elections in 2024, I repeat what I had said in an earlier press conference, that 2023 is a ‘make or break’ year,” Nicholas Haysom said.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir pledged on Tuesday that elections, previously postponed and now scheduled for next year, would go ahead as planned, and that he would run for president.

[…] "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.