South Sudan announces a new two-year extension to the transition period

September 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –

South Sudan announced on Friday a new two-year extension to the transition period opened following the signing of the 2018 peace agreement between the country’s president, Salva Kiir, and the main rebel leader and vice president, Riek Machar.

South Sudanese Cabinet Minister Martin Elia Lomuro said the extension, which sets elections for December 2026, was “in response to recommendations from both electoral institutions and the security sector.”

In this regard, he argued that it is essential to “have more time to complete the pending tasks before the elections.” “The remaining months of the current transition period will be used to mobilize funds for the effective implementation of the revitalized peace agreement,” he added in a statement.

The South Sudanese authorities, who have assured that the government will continue to function “as usual”, already extended the transition period in August 2022 and set the date for elections to be held this December, although there was much skepticism about this given the enormous difficulties in achieving a complete peace with all the armed opposition groups.

In an interview in May, the European Union’s ambassador to Sudan, Timo Olkonnen, spoke out against any kind of enlargement and called on South Sudanese authorities to strictly adhere to the terms of the 2018 agreement, the beginning of the end of a five-year civil war between Kiir’s and Machar’s forces that left nearly 400,000 dead and more than two million displaced.

UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix warned in March that if the elections “are not carefully managed, there is a potential for violence with disastrous consequences” for the African country and the region.

Despite a decline in violence due to political conflict, the country has seen an increase in inter-community clashes, mainly caused by cattle rustling and disputes between herders and farmers in the most fertile areas of the country, particularly due to increasing desertification and population displacement.