South Sudan election could fuel atrocities, UN warns

A United Nations-appointed human rights commission warned Thursday that South Sudan’s planned December elections could fuel renewed conflict and increase the risk of atrocities.

South Sudan’s government says it intends to hold the country’s first-ever elections in December, almost 15 years after independence. The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said “multiple risk factors for atrocity crimes are converging” before the vote.

“Elections held without a strategy for democratic consolidation and preventing national schisms could instead fuel renewed conflict,” the commission warned in a report.

South Sudan has delayed elections twice, in 2022 and 2024, as it struggled to establish institutions amid corruption and insecurity. The UN report said the country was now “at one of its most dangerous points”, citing a worsening political, security, humanitarian and human rights situation.

Yasmin Sooka, chair of the commission, said South Sudan’s population deserved a genuine election, but “not one that puts their lives at risk”.

Violence has increased between forces allied to President Salva Kiir and imprisoned opposition leader Riek Machar, threatening a 2018 peace agreement. Kiir and Machar fought a civil war from 2013 to 2018 after independence in 2011. The war claimed an estimated 400,000 lives.

The power-sharing agreement that ended the war has largely collapsed, with Machar and several allies jailed last year. The commission said elections risk “reinforcing, rather than resolving, the underlying drivers of conflict”.

South Sudan also faces cuts in aid from Western donors. The UN warned earlier this month that it may have to end food assistance to refugees within weeks.