The unity government established to end the civil war in South Sudan was dragging its feet on implementing key parts of the 2018 peace deal, a US State Department report warns.
According to the report, ‘(ten) years after independence, South Sudan remains a deeply fragile nation beset by weak governance, pervasive insecurity, fiscal mismanagement, and widespread corruption’.
Reuters reports that, having gained independence in 2011, South Sudan has been beset by internal conflict after a falling out between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar divided the country on ethnic lines. Estimates suggest that 400 000 people died in the conflict.
While a deal was signed in 2018 that ended major fighting, small-scale clashes between local warlords over land and cattle continue across the country.
The US said that, until the conditions of the peace deal were met, it would continue to place sanctions on leaders who were driving the conflict.
[Image: South Sudan’s presidential guard await the arrival of foreign dignitaries during official independence celebrations in 2011. Steve Evans, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18246545]