UN warns of worsening crisis in South Sudan as peace process falters

The United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, on Monday said security and humanitarian conditions in South Sudan were deteriorating.

In a briefing to the Security Council, she said recent military offensives have resulted in deaths, displacement, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

“There has been a continued erosion of the gains previously made in the peace process, including of the trust and confidence built among the parties to the Revitalized Peace Agreement,” she said.

The 2018 deal ended the country’s five-year civil war and required President Salva Kiir to work in concord with his rival, First Vice President Riek Machar.

But Machar’s party said the deal effectively collapsed when he was placed under house arrest along with his wife in March.

Since then, military offensives, primarily involving South Sudan’s rival militia, which answers to the Machar, and government troops loyal to the president, have continued.

In addition, the devastating civil war in neighbouring Sudan has driven 1.2 million refugees into South Sudan, straining already-limited resources.

Pobee said financing cuts are adding to the pressure with only 28.5 per cent of the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan pledged.

Over nine million people need urgent humanitarian assistance, but the UN said aid workers face mounting risks, including attacks, and administrative barriers.

South Sudan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Sabino Edward Nyawella Amaikwey, said the country was committed to ensuring that any obstacles to UN operations were addressed.

Poybee said calls for an end to hostilities, de-escalation, and return to dialogue, have not yielded results and urged the parties to unblock the current political deadlock.

“By fully recommitting to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, releasing the political detainees, engaging in direct high-level dialogue, and recommit implementing an inclusive peace process,” she said.