The United Nations mission in South Sudan is urging parties to practise restraint and engage in a collaborative spirit in order to resolve such sensitive national problems in response to the recent dismissal of the defence minister.
President Salva Kiir fired Angelina Teny, the country’s first female defence minister and a member of the major opposition party, with the party asking for her reinstatement.
On Monday, UN envoy Nicholas Haysom urged South Sudan’s transitional government to execute a peace agreement in order to conduct credible elections next year.
He told the UN Security Council that 2023 was a “make or break” year, noting that parties had agreed that no extensions to the timelines of the peace agreement would be granted.
He emphasised the importance of completing the transitional phase by next year, including the drafting of a new constitution. He described it as an opportunity for South Sudanese to agree on how to coexist peacefully and avoid a repeat of the country’s civil wars.
A five-year civil war that concluded in 2018 claimed nearly 400,000 lives. It resulted in the signing of a peace treaty and the formation of a transitional government headed by President Kiir and his rival Riek Machar.