South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir stunned many after he appointed a dead man to a panel preparing for long-delayed elections in the country.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir stunned many after he appointed a dead man to a panel preparing for long-delayed elections in the country. The man in question was 70-year-old Steward Sorobo Budia, an opposition politician who died five years ago.
The mistake was later corrected by an embarrassed government official, adding to the chaos South Sudan has been grappling with in recent months. Kiir has been trying to bolster his government while the country slides toward a new civil war.
Interestingly, Kiie has fired or rotated several senior government officials over the past 18 months, some within days of their appointment. Not only this, he has arrested the country’s vice president, Riek Machar, endangering a 2018 peace deal between the two men that underpins South Sudan’s political stability.
The South Sudanese president has openly clashed with the United States, which accuses his government of undermining peace efforts and sabotaging humanitarian aid. It is pertinent to note that the African nation initially placated Trump, becoming the first country in Trump’s second term to accept third-country deportees from the United States last summer. However, ties with Washington deteriorated significantly since then.
A turbulent leader leading a turbulent country
More recently, the South Sudanese government has appeared to push the rebels back, with claims it had recaptured key towns in the northeast. Critics have accused Kiir’s government of gross incompetence and say that his authority has become dangerously weak.
Many believe that Kiir’s frequent purges of senior aides have weakened the country’s security apparatus and left him increasingly isolated, and have even led to gunfire on the streets of Juba. In November, Kiir also fired another vice president and his presumed successor, Benjamin Bol Mel, who is under US sanctions.
Elections are now scheduled to take place in the country in December, this year, but as fighting spreads, analysts say a vote looks increasingly unlikely. The world’s youngest country has struggled with waves of famine, conflict and political turmoil since it achieved independence in 2011 after seceding from Sudan.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 280,000 people have fled their homes so far this year, and 40,000 children suffer acute malnutrition. More than 400,000 people died during the five-year South Sudanese civil war that ended in 2018. Hence, many remain concerned about the rise in violence during this year’s election as well.
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