Attachments
I. Introduction
1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 2677 (2023), by which the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) until 15 March 2024 and requested the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the Mission’s mandate every 90 days. The report covers political and security developments, the humanitarian and human rights situation and progress towards the implementation of the Mission’s mandate between 16 February and 31 May 2023.
II. Major political developments
2. On 22 February, the end of the original timeline of the three -year transitional period as per the 2018 Revitalized Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (“Revitalized Agreement”) was marked, as was the start of the 24-month extended transitional period, to end on 22 February 2025, as agreed by the parties under the road map.
3. On 23 February, the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity requested the United Nations, the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to assist in establishing a joint taskforce for advancing the constitution-making and electoral processes. On 28 April, the Council of Ministers approved the establishment of the taskforce, and the inaugural meeting was held on 1 June.
4. The opening session of the reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly was held on 27 March, during which the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, acknowledged the support given to the constitutional and electoral processes by UNMISS and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
5. On 3 March, the President removed the Minister for Defence and Veteran Affairs, Angelina Teny, an appointee of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), and the Minister of the Interior, Mahmoud Solomon, and subsequently appointed a representative of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to the Ministry of Defence and a representative of SPLM-IO to the Ministry of the Interior. The reshuffle created a political impasse, with tensions escalating on 29 March following the appointment of General Chol Thon Balok as the new Minister for Defence and Veteran Affairs. In response, on 30 March SPLM-IO requested IGAD to intervene and resolve the dispute. The removal of the Minister for Defence and Veteran Affairs and the swapping of the portfolios was determined to be a violation of the Revitalized Agreement by the reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission.
6. To address the political impasse, UNMISS, the African Union Mission in South Sudan, the Office of the Special Envoy for South Sudan of IGAD and the reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, exercising its good offices, encouraged SPLM and SPLM-IO leadership to reach a settlement. The members of the quartet held a series of engagements with the First Vice-President of South Sudan, Riek Machar, as well as Vice-Presidents Hussein Abdelbagi, Wani Igga and Taban Deng, and cabinet ministers. In addition, regional efforts were also undertaken, but the issue has yet to be resolved.
7. Internal mediation on the same impasse led by Vice-President Hussein Abdelbagi, the Presidential Advisor on Security Affairs, Tut Gatluak, and the Minister for Presidential Affairs, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, among others, did not yield a breakthrough either. However, those efforts appeared to have resulted in an agreement on the sharing ratios of the necessary unified forces – 60 per cent for SPLM, 30 per cent for SPLM-IO and 10 per cent for the South Sudan Opposition Alliance.
8. Subsequently, on 14 March, the National Transitional Committee directed the security mechanisms to present deployment plans for the necessary unified forces. On 24 March, the Committee announced the allocation of the middle-ranking echelon positions for the parties. On 12 May, the Council of Ministers approved the budget for the deployment of the first batch of the necessary unified forces. Howe ver, the deployment of this first batch under phase I and the commencement of phase II remained pending.
9. From 21 to 23 March, the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity met with the Non-Signatory South Sudanese Opposition Group in Rome, under the auspices of the Community of Sant’Egidio. As an agreement could not be reached on the agenda, the talks were adjourned until 8 May. To date, the parties have not met.
10. On 14 April, the Council of Ministers approved the national elections act 2012 (amendment) bill 2023, and submitted it to parliament on 29 May. On 8 May, the amended national security service bill 2023, the public financial management and accountability bill 2023, the Bank of South Sudan bill 2023 and the banking bill 2023 were all tabled.
11. On 6 April, the National Bureau of Statistics released a report on the population estimation survey conducted between May and June 2021 in all 10 states and the three administrative areas. In the report, the population of South Sudan was estimated to be 12.4 million people (52.9 per cent women), including internally displaced persons.
On 10 March, the Council of Ministers, while endorsing the report, affirmed that the findings contained therein would not be used for electoral-related purposes, which was echoed by the National Bureau of Statistics on 6 April. However, the report generated debate in South Sudan, owing to the significant variances in the population estimates of some states in comparison with the 2008 census figures (8.26 million) and the views of the opposition that the new data would be unfavourable to them if used for elections.