I would like to thanks SRSG (Nicholas) Haysom and Ms (Ghada) Mudawi for briefing this Council on the situation in South Sudan. My special appreciation goes to Ms (Lorna) Merekaje for her insightful remarks and her clear recommendations today on how to move forward with the implementation of the peace agreement and how to help strengthening the civil society.
We welcome also the representative of South Sudan to this meeting.
I would like to focus on four points today:
First, we remain deeply concerned about the grave human rights and security situation in South Sudan. Particularly shocking is the significant increase in gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence incidents”, as reflected in the Secretary-General’s report.
Impunity is the norm. What the country and its people need, is the opposite: a strengthened and effective justice and accountability. It needs real political will and resolve to move ahead. Therefore, we call on all leaders, political actors, and commanders to make fighting sexual violence a priority.
Second, the people in South Sudan continue to suffer from severe food insecurity and hunger, violence, displacement, and lack of opportunities. Climate change and its affects have severe impacts in South Sudan. Creating resilience will be key to improve the situation in the future. At the same time, the humanitarian situation is aggravated by violence and the global food crisis.
We express concern over “the trend of increased attacks on humanitarian workers and assets”, including the death of four humanitarian workers this year and the looting of hundreds of tons of food and life-saving supplies.
We call on the Government of South Sudan, all other actors and leaders to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach all the people in need, to alleviate their suffering. We regret that the Government is creating bureaucratic hurdles and adding pre-conditions on humanitarian actors to carry out their work. This must end immediately!
Third, we commend the work of UNMIOSS and urge the government to ensure the free movement of UNMISS, in order to allow the implementation of its mandate, and the full respect for the sofa agreement.
Fourth, while some progress has been made on implementing the Revised Peace Agreement, the overall implementation remains slow. The SG’s benchmark report proved the limited progress – and the Panel of Experts summarized in clear and very sobering words.
We remain concerned about the delays in implementing the agreement, the ongoing intercommunal violence, high levels of sexual violence and the economic and humanitarian crises. We call on all the parties to accelerate the implementation of the revised peace agreement, particularly in relation to transitional security arrangements and in light of the end of the transitional period in February 2023.
To conclude, it is difficult to see a way out of this political gridlock. We, therefore, call on all actors to step-up their political will, and agree on a date for elections, and keep in mind that the UN stands ready to provide necessary support to the process, should the government request such assistance. We express our strong support for regional efforts as well as those of the AU and IGAD to find a way forward to bring peace back to South Sudan.
I thank you
