The United Nations (UN) and the United States (US) on Monday appealed to the leaders of South Sudan to boost preparations for elections due to be held in less than a year or risk catastrophe, reported France 24.
“As I have stated before, elections have the potential to be a nation-building moment or a catastrophe,” Nicholas Haysom, the UN envoy for South Sudan, told the Security Council.
He said much depends on the political will as well as the leadership of the South Sudanese working together.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN said that in order to work toward a true democracy, the South Sudanese government needed to move swiftly to implement the provisions set out in an agreement on revitalizing the peace process which includes constitution drafting process, public financial management reform, transitional security arrangements, and transitional justice mechanisms.
She said the South Sudanese government, unfortunately, is way behind meeting key electoral benchmarks set out in the agreement.
As the UN Security Council is expected to take a decision on March 15 on renewing the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan for a year, Haysom pleaded for the deployment to remain at current levels of 17,000 troops and 2,100 police.
“We anticipate a mandate flexible enough to support the conduct of free and fair elections, upon the request of the government,” he said.
In February, the UN warned that South Sudan, which has been independent since only 2011, risks plunging back into war with less than a year until elections.
Notably, South Sudan has experienced chronic instability since its independence from Sudan. the country descended into a bloody civil war between Riek Machar and Salva Kiir, which left nearly 400,000 dead and millions displaced.
A peace deal signed in 2018 led to power-sharing in a national unity government sworn in February 2020, with Kiir as president and Machar as vice-president. But the provisions of the peace agreement remain largely unimplemented, due mainly to persistent disputes between the two rivals.
