While South Sudan anticipates holding its first elections in December 2024, key institutions and legal frameworks are yet to be established, and critical questions remain unanswered, the top United Nations official for the country told the UN Security Council Friday. At the briefing, speakers warned that intercommunal violence and a massive influx of returnees and refugees continue to worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in the country.
“With 15 months remaining to the elections scheduled to end the transitional period, time is of the essence for South Sudan”, Nicholas Haysom, special envoy of the UN Secretary-General and head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said, briefing the Council.
“And critical questions remain unanswered. Resolving these questions does not require material resources, only the political will to reach compromise and consensus.”
Haysom stressed the need to determine the type of elections to be held, voter registration requirements, the nature of participation by refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and how electoral-related disputes will be managed.
“Of particular importance is the stalled constitution-making process, to be carried out in an environment that respects freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and encourages civic engagement. This process is 12 months behind schedule, according to the Roadmap”, he said.
The special envoy said that time is of the essence for South Sudan to realize the goals and aspirations of the Revitalized Peace Agreement and its Roadmap, and further steps should be taken by the country’s political leadership to reach the goals.
“The need to recalibrate or resolve the priorities within the remaining time of the Transitional period is now urgent. However, this sense of urgency needs to come from the parties to the agreement, not from the international community”, Haysom added.
The special envoy noted that the ceasefire was largely holding across the country.
“There has been a substantial reduction in conflict between the signatories since the signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement in 2018. But intercommunal and sub-national violence remains an overall impediment to peace consolidation as does sporadic fighting between the Government forces and non-signatories, absent the latter’s integration into the peace process”, he said.
For her part, Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Council members that the humanitarian situation in the country continues to encounter major challenges, compounded by the conflict in neighboring Sudan, and painted a grim picture of the dire humanitarian situation in South Sudan.
At the start of 2023, more than 9.4 million people in the country — 76 percent of the population — required humanitarian assistance. In addition, more than 260,000 people have arrived in South Sudan seeking protection and safety, most of them South Sudanese nationals fleeing violence in neighboring Sudan.
Wosornu said this massive influx of returnees and refugees occurs against a backdrop of limited funding. South Sudan’s trade and economy have also been negatively affected, with food prices increasing between 20 and 75 percent. Rising market prices, in turn, have increased the overall cost of humanitarian responses and worsening food insecurity has increased gender-based violence.
The 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan for South Sudan, which requires $1.7 billion to support 6.8 million people, is only 50 percent funded. Despite underfunding, about 4 million people across South Sudan received some humanitarian assistance in the first half of 2023.
Nonetheless, Wosornu stressed that “the people of South Sudan want to move beyond humanitarian support, to stand on their own two feet, and to thrive and flourish as an independent nation”.
Conflict, climate change, and soaring costs in South Sudan are causing some of the highest levels of hunger in the world. An estimated 7.8 million people – 68 percent of the country’s population - are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity in South Sudan. More than 1.4 million children under five are estimated acutely malnourished, including some 346,000 children under five years that are severely acute malnourished and in need of urgent medical care.
Before the conflict erupted in Sudan, at least 9.4 million people in South Sudan needed humanitarian assistance, an increase of half a million people compared to 2022. Among those in need are 5 million children. These numbers are likely to rise with the returnees from Sudan.
With 4.6 million people forcibly displaced, South Sudan has the highest proportion - 40 percent - of its population displaced of any country in Africa. While 2.3 million people are internally displaced, more than 2.3 million people have fled to neighboring countries. Most of them are now in Uganda, which hosts 1 million South Sudanese refugees.
South Sudan continues to be the most violent context for aid workers in the world. According to the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD), nineteen humanitarian workers were killed in the country in 2022.
After independence from Sudan in July 2011, South Sudan slid into more than five years of civil war, with forces loyal to President Salva Kiir battling supporters of Vice President Riek Machar. Nearly 400,000 South Sudanese died as a result of the conflict that began in December 2013. Atrocities and attacks on civilians, including widespread sexual violence, defined the civil war.
An initial peace agreement signed in 2015 failed. After many delays, a revitalized agreement signed in 2018 led to the formation of a Transitional Government of National Unity in February 2020. Progress in implementing the peace agreement has been slow, however, as the parties quarrel over the division of power.
Further information
Full text: Critical Electoral Questions Remain Unanswered amidst Grim Humanitarian Situation in South Sudan, United Nations Officials Tell Security Council, UN Security Council press release, published September 15, 2023
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15412.doc.htm