Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, declared on Tuesday that the postponed election scheduled for next year would go as scheduled and that he would compete for office.
Since he guided the country to independence from Sudan in 2011, Kiir, a towering rebel leader, has served as the country’s sole president.
During Kiir’s presidency, the world’s youngest country lurched from crisis to crisis and is now only held together by a tenuous unity government led by Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar.
Elections in February 2023 were supposed to mark the end of the transition period, but the administration has so far fallen short of important requirements like creating a constitution.
“I welcome the endorsement to run for presidency in 2024,” Kiir told supporters of his governing Sudan People’s Liberation Movement party, describing it as a “historic event.”
“We are committed to implement the chapters in the revitalised peace agreement as stated, and the election will take place in 2024.”
Although no other candidates have announced their candidacies, Machar, a former rival, is anticipated to run.
The two leaders, citing the necessity to address issues that were impeding the execution of the peace agreement, decided to prolong their transitional government by two years in August.
In response to this, Kiir stated on Tuesday that the issues would be resolved “before the elections” scheduled for December of the next year.
Despite having significant oil reserves, South Sudan is one of the world’s poorest countries and has been at war for roughly half of its history.
Before Kiir and Machar reached a peace agreement in 2018 and established the unity government, about 400,000 people perished in a five-year civil conflict.
Since then, as the promises of the peace deal have not been fulfilled, the nation has struggled with flooding, starvation, bloodshed, and political wrangling.
The leadership of South Sudan has come under fire from the UN numerous times for inciting violence, repressing political liberties, and looting public funds.
The U.N. envoy to South Sudan, Nicholas Haysom, warned in March the country faced a “make or break” year in 2023, and its leaders must implement the peace agreement to hold “inclusive and credible” elections next year.
Haysom stressed Juba had “stated clearly that there would be no more extensions of the timelines” for elections at the end of 2024.