South Sudan
Expected Council Action
In December, the Security Council will hold a briefing and consultations on the Secretary-General’s 90-day report on South Sudan, which members expect to receive by 8 December. Ambassador Michel Xavier Biang (Gabon), chair of the 2206 South Sudan Sanctions Committee, is expected to brief on the committee’s work. Consultations will follow the briefing.
The mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) expires on 15 March 2024.
Background and Key Recent Developments
On 4 August 2022, all signatories to the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) agreed to a roadmap extending the transitional period by 24 months to implement its key outstanding tasks. (Central aspects of the roadmap relate to the unification of forces and their redeployment, the drafting of the permanent constitution, and the electoral process.) The original transitional period outlined in the R-ARCSS ended on 22 February. In a 21 February press statement, the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU) announced the beginning of the extended transition period, which is to end on 22 February 2025, with elections to be held in December 2024.
The most recent quarterly report of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), which is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the R-ARCSS, covering the period from 1 July to 30 September, was released on 23 October. The report noted that lack of progress towards a permanent constitution and transitional security arrangements remain the most critical pending issues. During the period covered by the report, deployment of Phase I of the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF) was not completed, and the Phase II training, scheduled to start in November 2022, had not commenced. The unification of forces remains a key component of the security apparatus required for holding elections and guaranteeing the overall security of the country, the report added.
On 3 November, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit issued presidential decrees on the commencement of the process to reconstitute South Sudan’s National Constitutional Review Commission, National Elections Commission and the Political Parties’ Council. In a 9 November joint statement, the African Union Mission in South Sudan (AUMISS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and UNMISS welcomed the signing of the presidential decrees, calling it a critical development. The statement called on the parties to the R-ARCSS to engage in immediate dialogue to resolve the remaining outstanding issues and on the South Sudanese government to disburse the necessary resources to ensure the institutional readiness of the reconstituted entities. The statement added that such efforts must be complemented by immediate deployment of the NUF to facilitate the peaceful completion of the transition.
On 16 November, the AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) held a meeting on the situation in South Sudan. In his remarks at the meeting, Special Representative and head of UNMISS Nicholas Haysom noted that despite the passage of critical legislation, the timelines set out in the roadmap remain behind schedule. He added that continuing security and political tensions across the country have the potential to intensify as the electoral date comes closer. He further noted that the country has recently witnessed a “spate of military defections which threatens to undermine the much-needed trust between the parties”. In light of the contrasting statements on election preparedness made by the parties to the R-ASCSS, he said, efforts need to be made to achieve consensus on the conditions that are required in order for elections to be held. While Kiir maintains that the electoral timeline will remain the same, members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition have expressed concerns about the lack of necessary preparations.
At the AUPSC meeting, Haysom also highlighted the impact of the conflict in Sudan on the increasingly dire humanitarian situation in South Sudan. He said that the “situation in some border areas is shifting from a humanitarian challenge to a security crisis as host, returnee and refugee populations contend for diminishing aid”.
According to data published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, as at 15 November, 368,880 people have crossed into South Sudan since the outbreak of fighting in Sudan on 15 April, including 50,947 Sudanese refugees, 3,446 non-Sudanese refugees, and 314,487 refugee returnees.
Intercommunal and subnational violence persists in many areas of the country. According to the 26 September quarterly brief on violence affecting civilians (covering April to June), UNMISS’ Human Rights Division documented 222 incidents of violence affecting 871 civilians. During the reporting period, the proportion of violent incidents increased by 14 percent (from 194 to 222) and incidents related to conflict-related sexual violence increased by 107 percent (from 14 to 29) over the previous quarter (January to March).
At the time of writing, a visit to South Sudan by members of the Informal Experts Group (IEG) on Women, Peace and Security was expected to take place from 11 to 14 December.
Sanctions-Related Developments
On 17 November, the 2206 South Sudan Sanctions Committee held informal consultations to receive a briefing from the Panel of Experts assisting the committee’s work on its interim report, which was circulated to Council members on 3 November.
Ambassador Michel Xavier Biang (Gabon), chair of the 2206 South Sudan Sanctions Committee, and some of the committee members visited South Sudan from 21 to 28 October.
Human Rights-Related Developments
On 5 October, the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan—which was established by the Human Rights Council in 2016—released a report describing incidents relating to “systematic narrowing and regression in civic space, a singular lack of political tolerance and dissent, as well as the ongoing repression of journalists, civil society actors and human rights defenders, and political actors”. The report added that the state of “pervasive impunity” in the country has further contributed to the severe constriction of democratic space.
In a 10 October statement, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Paula Gaviria Betancur, expressed disappointment regarding the decision of the South Sudanese government to postpone her planned visit to the country, scheduled to take place from 9 October to 20 October. Betancur said that “[c]iting the recent [5 October] South Sudan Commission on Human Rights report on civic space, and the UN Secretary-General’s report on ‘Cooperation with the UN, its representatives, and mechanisms in the field of human rights’, [released on 14 September 2022] as reasons for postponement sends the wrong message at a time when the protection of internally displaced persons in the country requires engagement of all humanitarian and development partners as well as the authorities to realise their human rights”.
Key Issues and Options
An ongoing concern for the Council is the significant political and security challenges in South Sudan stemming from the delays in implementing the R-ARCSS. A key issue in this regard is what the Council can do to encourage the parties to make progress in implementing the outstanding issues of the R-ARCSS.
A related issue for several Council members is the need for the government to engage with civil society in relation to the roadmap and its implementation.
Council members could consider adopting a presidential statement urging the parties to implement the roadmap in a timely and inclusive manner.
Another option is to consider a Council visiting mission to South Sudan to assess the situation on the ground and engage with the various parties to the R-ARCSS. (The last Council visiting mission to South Sudan was in 2019.)
The humanitarian situation in South Sudan remains a key issue. According to OCHA’s 2023 South Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), 9.4 million people—almost 76 percent of the country’s population— require humanitarian assistance in 2023, including 2.2 million women and 4.9 million children. At the same time, a funding shortage for relief efforts is forcing humanitarian agencies to prioritise activities and suspend programmes in some cases. As at 19 November, South Sudan’s 2023 HRP, requiring $2.05 billion, was 48.2% funded.
The high incidence of attacks on humanitarian workers and looting of humanitarian assets in recent months has been a matter of concern for Council members. At the time of writing, 28 aid workers have died and 44 have been injured in South Sudan in 2023 as a result of deliberate acts of violence perpetrated against them, according to data released by the Aid Worker Security Database, a compilation of reports on major security incidents against aid workers.
Council members could seek regular briefings on these and other related issues from OCHA.
The impact of the conflict in neighbouring Sudan on the humanitarian and political situations in South Sudan remains a matter of concern for Council members.
Council Dynamics
Most Council members share similar concerns about the delays in implementing the R-ARCSS, the ongoing sub-national and intercommunal violence, the high levels of sexual violence, and the economic and humanitarian crises. Members such as the UK and the US expressed reservations about extending the transitional period in August 2022 and called on the government to demonstrate its commitment to implementing the R-ARCSS in line with the deadlines set out in the roadmap. On the other hand, Russia maintains that the decision to extend the transitional period until February 2025 was necessary.
Differences of view on issues such as how to depict the situation on the ground in South Sudan, the extent to which the Council can and should apply pressure on the parties to fully implement the R-ARCSS, the utility of sanctions, and the effects of climate change on the situation in South Sudan also continue to colour Council dynamics.
The US is the penholder on South Sudan.
UN DOCUMENT ON SOUTH SUDAN
| Security Council Resolutions | |
| 15 March 2023S/RES/2677 | This was the resolution that renewed the mandate of UNMISS until 15 March 2024. |
