South Sudan is preparing to stage its first election as an independent country. What should have been a unifying coming-of-age moment for the embryonic state is fast becoming a source of mounting anxiety.
The vote was conceived as the finale to a peace agreement signed five years ago to pull the nation from a civil war that left at least 400,000 dead.
Senior UN officials warn that any election interpreted as unfair, corrupt, or simply incompetent risks pushing one of the world’s poorest states back into nationwide conflict.
Originally set for December—no date has been finalized—the first warnings that preparations for the election were behind schedule were sounded in April. There has been scant tangible progress since then.
Nicholas Haysom, the head of the UN mission in South Sudan, has 14,000 peacekeeping troops stationed across South Sudan in an attempt to prevent a slip into another calamitous civil war. However, amid increasing escalation, requested another battalion—an extra 1,000 soldiers.
He says South Sudan—which acquired independence in 2011—is facing an “existential” crisis.
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