The president of South Sudan confirms that he will be a candidate in the 2024 elections, the first since independence

July 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, has officially confirmed that he will stand as a candidate in the next presidential elections, the first since the country’s independence in 2011, and has promised that they will take place in 2024, after several postponements due to delays in the implementation of the 2018 peace agreement.

The president – ​​who has led the country since independence – received in December 2022 the support of the government Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) as its leader and, therefore, as a candidate for the presidential elections. The unity government began preparations for the organization of the elections in June.

“I am deeply moved by the endorsement for him to be the SPLM candidate in 2024 and his continued support for our historic party gives me confidence that we will be together as we move towards next year’s elections,” Kiir said during an event at the Western Bahr el Ghazal state.

“That is why I wholeheartedly accept your support. It is your support and I accept it,” he stated, while ruling out that there are tensions within the SPLM, as reported by the Radio Tamazuj station. “I recognize that there have been challenges and our party is aware of your expectations after independence,” he stressed.

“While we had a plan to address your needs, these plans were interrupted by the senseless war we fought between 2013 and 2018. The war takes resources away from service delivery and its intensity halted the implementation of government plans, which is why that I signed the 2018 peace agreement”, he explained.

Thus, he has stated that “he did not want the war to continue, not because he was defeated, but because it was better to stop it”, while he praised the progress in construction projects undertaken by the unity authorities after the signing of the peace agreement, which included the appointment as first vice president of the main rebel leader, Riek Machar.

Kiir assured at the end of March that the unity government is prepared to organize elections and outlined that “there will be no further extensions” of the mandate of this Executive, after several postponements due to delays in the application of various clauses of the peace agreement.

Despite the decrease in violence due to the political conflict, the country has registered an increase in inter-community confrontations, mainly motivated by the theft of cattle and disputes between herders and farmers in the most fertile areas of the country, especially due to the increase in desertification and displacement of populations.