South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir [Photo: The East African]
The UN’s peacekeeping mission in South Sudan says it is prepared to contain any possibility of violence related to elections set to take place in 2023.
South Sudan has never conducted elections since becoming independent 10 years ago.
A vote scheduled for 2015 could not take place due to the conflict that erupted in December 2013.
However, the country’s President Salva Kiir has affirmed his commitment to the conduct of the general elections at the end of the transitional period.
He says there is an urgent need to complete all the provisions of the revitalized peace agreement before 2023.
“There is no time left for us, it is important that we agree and implement the pending tasks in the implementation of this agreement,” said Kiir.
So far, there have been two extensions of the Pre-Transitional Period before the extension of the election deadline to 2023.
The pre-interim period in May 2019 was extended by six months, after the main opposition leader Riek Machar requested for more time to implement key parts of the security arrangements.
The period was further extended by 100 days.
However, Machar who is the South Sudan first Vice-President Riek and President Kiir formed a unity government in February 2020, to end conflict between their rival forces.
They also agreed to form a unified army of 83,000 troops