South Sudan peace guarantors ‘disappointed’ by election delay
Guarantors of South Sudan’s turbulent peace process have called the government’s decision to postpone elections by two years a “disappointment”. The group of countries – including the UK, US, Norway, the EU, Canada, France, Germany, and the Netherlands – also said the delay shows that the South Sudanese government failed to implement the peace deal signed in 2018.
Prominent South Sudanese academics and civil society groups have also criticised the government for not putting in place the legal, financial, logistical, and security arrangements necessary to hold the polls, which were previously postponed in 2022.
The elections would have been the country’s first since independence, and would have seen the population choose leaders to replace the current transitional government, which will now hold power for another two years.
The transitional period was supposed to be a time of political reconciliation, especially between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar – both key protagonists in the civil war, which broke out in 2013 and left an estimated 400,000 people dead.
Yet rates of violence have stayed stubbornly high as political and military elites have jostled for power, and critics say Kiir has spent much of the past few years weakening the opposition by courting defections.
The humanitarian and economic situation is dire, with the war in Sudan having disrupted oil exports – the government main revenue source – and flooding linked to the climate crisis expected to drive parts of the country into famine in the coming months.
For detailed reporting on the transitional period and the rocky peace process, check out our homepage of South Sudan stories.
