South Sudan - August 2023

On 2 August, Nicholas Haysom, the head of the UN mission in South Sudan, warned that the country is not ready to hold transitional elections scheduled for December 2024. Under South Sudan’s 2018 peace agreement, the elections are due to mark the end of its halting transition to democracy, which in August 2022 was extended by two years due to the slow implementation of the agreement. According to Haysom, the country has still not established the necessary infrastructure to hold credible elections, with ‘foundational tasks’, such as drafting a constitution, incomplete. In July 2023, however, its President, Salva Kiir, said the polls would be held next year as planned. South Sudan has not held general elections since it gained its independence in 2011.

Sources: United Nations (1), United Nations (2), International IDEA,  British Broadcasting Corporation, African Arguments