The United States on Thursday said parties to the 2018 revitalized peace agreement have failed to fulfill critical prerequisites necessary for holding free, fair and credible elections.
“Despite significant international support, including identification of key election issues by the United Nations, African Union, and Intergovernmental Authority on Development, President Salva Kiir, First Vice President Riek Machar, and other South Sudanese political leaders have thus far collectively failed to meet the standards necessary for genuine and peaceful elections to take place in December,” said the U.S State Department in a statement.
U.S State Department revealed that the longer South Sudan’s leaders avoid taking critical steps, the greater the risk of additional violence, adding that an estimated 75 percent of the country’s population will require humanitarian assistance this year as a result of ongoing violence.
“Transitional government leaders should act with urgency to address these deficiencies and create the necessary preconditions for a genuine and peaceful electoral process, including by protecting civic space, standing up politically neutral security forces, strengthening electoral institutions,” it said.
On April 8,2024, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, raised concerns to the UN Security Council over critical preconditions necessary to hold genuine and peaceful elections that the South Sudan transitional government has yet to meet.
The U.S State Department revealed that the strong U.S. advocacy for the necessary preconditions for a genuine and peaceful electoral process in South Sudan is designed to avoid a return to civil war.
“The United States remains concerned about ongoing reports of human rights violations, as well as inadequate investment in key democratic institutions”.
It disclosed that U.S engagement with the people of South Sudan, which began decades before the country’s independence, remains focused on shared values of peace, democracy and human rights, adding that it’s the government’s duty to respond to the needs of its people.
