UN calls for urgent action to shore up peace in South Sudan

The United Nations on Wednesday said South Sudan’s conflict has become increasingly complex as the level of suffering for millions of civilians remains intolerable, calling for an urgent need for action to shore up peace.

The UN Commission for Human Rights in South Sudan urged the African countries and other stakeholders to renew their support for the implementation of the peace agreement for South Sudan, whose people face one of the gravest humanitarian crises in the region that rarely makes headlines.

“Every month we see thousands of South Sudanese cross borders, stream into the UN-run protection site or move around the country trying to dodge an ever-shifting mosaic of violence that hardly registers regionally or internationally. Aid agencies struggle even to raise enough money to feed the victims because South Sudan has become invisible in the wake of other crises around the world,” said UN Human Rights Commissioner Barney Afako in a statement in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

The UN commission stressed that progress has been extremely slow in implementing the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement for South Sudan.

Core aspects of the peace agreement, including the unification of security forces, have been plagued by persistent disputes between the parties on the allocation of ratios of representation and resources.

The UN Commission said the parties to the agreement have also consistently failed to meet deadlines set for critical reforms and the establishment of the transitional justice bodies, without a credible justification for the delays.

Yasmin Sooka, the chairperson of the UN Commission for South Sudan, pushed for increased efforts in implementing the agreement in South Sudan.