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South Sudan

Events of 2024

A woman walks along a road with cans of water in Juba, South Sudan, January 26, 2024. 

© 2024 Michael Kappeler/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

Authorities failed to meet conditions to hold general elections scheduled for December 2024, and postponed elections for another two years. The implementation of the 2018 peace deal and of reforms was slow, fueled violence and perpetuated rights abuses. The government launched the Tumaini initiative peace talks with non-signatories to the 2018 peace deal in Kenya.

Authorities severely restricted the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and movement. Journalists, activists, critics, and political opposition members faced intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture and other ill-treatment. The parliament approved a law retaining broad powers for the abusive National Security Service (NSS), despite efforts by some lawmakers to review its most contentious provisions. It also approved legislation for truth and reparations processes but failed to establish the Hybrid Court.

Conflict between armed groups in Upper Nile and southern Central Equatoria led to displacement of civilians and serious abuses. Intercommunal violence in parts of Warrap, Abyei, Northern Bar El Ghazal, and Jonglei intensified.

The humanitarian situation remained dire, driven by years of conflict, intercommunal violence, food insecurity, and the climate crisis. The arrival of hundreds of thousands fleeing conflict in Sudan, including South Sudanese refugee returnees, Sudanese, and other nationalities, compounded the crisis. Millions faced high levels of food insecurity. According to UNOCHA, climate change-induced events, like floods, affected at least 890,000 people. Attacks against aid operations continued; at least  nine aid workers were killed.

Political Developments

The government restricted the space for political parties and members of the opposition groups to campaign in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

The obstacles to political space included the requirement that parties and civil society obtain permission from the NSS for public events and the government’s failure to set up key institutions, such as the Political Parties Council which should register and oversee operations of parties.

On May 25, Salva Kiir was endorsed as his party’s presidential candidate. He warned that an extension of the election timetable would cause a return to conflict.

The Tumaini talks were launched in May, with the goal of rebooting the 2018 peace deal, expanding the government and addressing the root cause of conflicts.

In July, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) withdrew from the Tumaini peace initiative citing concerns that “it dealt with matters that were already agreed in the Revitalized Peace Agreement and accordingly have gone beyond its remit.”

The National Salvation Front led by Thomas Cirillo Swaka continued an insurgency campaign in parts of Central Equatoria with abuses against civilians and refused to participate in the Tumaini talks citing security concerns and a lack of consultation. In June, Major General Kohn Kenyi Lotio, NAS deputy chief of staff, broke away to form a separate faction, citing poor leadership.

On September 13, the government announced the postponement of elections, citing a lack of preparations and enacted a new timeline to address outstanding issues such as unification of forces, national census, voter registration,a new constitution, and judicial reforms. On September 22, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) the body that monitors the peace deal endorsed the decision but key international partners abstained from the vote.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan noted that delaying elections would compound the country’s human rights crisis if leaders do not change course.

Restrictions on Civic and Political Space

The NSS continued to unlawfully detain perceived government critics and severely restricted rights. Victims of NSS abuses have no credible, far less effective, avenues to seek redress.

On July 3, a parliamentary majority passed amendments to the 2014 National Security Service Act retaining the agency’s powers of arrest without a warrant. President Kiir neither signed nor sent the law back to parliament within the stipulated 30-day period, so by default the law came into effect, thereby concluding a reform process introduced by the 2015 and 2018 peace deals. The NSS deployed a heavy presence, harassed journalists, and detained activists at the parliamentary sitting on the law.

On June 29, police and NSS agents in Jonglei state detained a photojournalist with the state-run South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation for participating in protests about the cost of living and nonpayment of civil servant salaries. A court released him on July 19 due to lack of evidence. 

On September 6, the NSS released Kalisto Lado, the former mayor of Juba having held him for five months in incommunicado detention at the NSS detention facilities known as the Blue House. Authorities had charged him with terrorism and publishing false information among other offences, but never presented him in court.

On September 1, the NSS shutdown the annual general assembly of the South Sudan Doctors Union without providing a reason. On September 3, the NSS gave the union a list of requirements to fulfil including to not discuss, “controversial issues” and to supply a list of all attendees. The Union was allowed to meet in October after meeting the NSS demands.

On October 2, Kiir dismissed Akol Kor Kuc as director general of the NSS internal security bureau.

Between November 7 and 11, the new leadership released at least 16 detainees including Michael Wetnhialic, a political activist detained since March and Morris Mabior Awikjiok, a South Sudanese critic and former refugee, whom they had continued to hold in violation of the justice minister directives in June and a court order in August to release him. Awikjiok, was abducted from Kenya, allegedly by Kenyan and South Sudanese security agents, in February 2023 and forcibly disappeared by South Sudanese authorities until April 2024, when they presented him in court on charges of the bailable offense of criminal defamation against then director of the NSS, Akol Koor Kuc.

Attacks against civilians

In a May report, UNMISS noted that the government’s counter-insurgency operations in 2023 against the armed group National Salvation Front (NAS), in parts of Central Equatoria resulted in 60 civilian victims (28 killed, eight injured, and 24 subjected to conflict related sexual violence), and the targeting of civilians perceived as supporters of NAS.

In August the United Nations noted that abductions by NAS and other armed groups in parts of Central Equatoria state reportedly for the purpose of forced recruitment had increased.

In February, Warrap state government enacted the Green Book which introduces death by firing squad as a penalty for offences such as murder and rape. Between February and July, the UN documented 41 extrajudicial executions of suspected criminals by state authorities and security forces. The state also has not ensured accountability for past summary executions including that of eight suspected criminals documented by Human Rights Watch in 2021.

Children’s Rights

South Sudan has one of the world’s highest proportion of out-of-school children, with three in every five children not going to school. In March, the government closed all schools for two weeks in response to extreme heat waves, citing concerns for “serious health hazards.” School closures interrupted schooling for over 2.1 million children.

In June, a girl, who reportedly was 14 years old, was married in a highly publicized child marriage that contravenes South Sudan’s laws protecting children from child marriage.

The UN Secretary General’s Annual report on children and armed conflict published in June noted that in 2023, all parties to the conflict committed grave violations against children including recruitment and use of 152 children, abduction of 32 children and sexual violence against 4 girls.

Accountability and Justice

In March, the UN Human Rights Council renewed the mandate of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.

The Action Plan for the Armed Forces on Addressing Conflict-related Sexual Violence in South Sudan was renewed for three years but its implementation stalled as the army did not nominate members to the implementation committee.

In September, parliament enacted bills to establish the Commission for Truth Reconciliation and Healing and the Compensation and Reparations Authority to advance justice and accountability for victims of abuses committed since war broke out in 2013.

The African Union Commission has the responsibility under the 2018 peace agreement to establish the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, but it failed to move ahead with the court’s creation or press the South Sudanese authorities to help it establish the court.