13/10/2025
SOUTH SUDAN: UN COMMISSION URGES AU AND UN SECURITY
COUNCILS TO ACT DECISIVELY AS CRISIS DEEPENS, DEMANDING
URGENT ACTION AND RENEWED COMMITMENT TO PEACE,
ACCOUNTABILITY AND A CREDIBLE TRANSITION
ADDIS ABABA/GENEVA (13 October 2025) – South Sudan’s escalating political
crisis is driving renewed armed violence, compounding already dire human rights and
humanitarian conditions, while heightening regional instability, the UN Commission
on Human Rights in South Sudan warned today. Despite one decade of efforts by the
African Union and regional actors to support the peace process, South Sudan’s
leaders have deliberately stalled progress and brought South Sudan to yet another
precipice. Armed clashes are occurring on a scale not seen since a cessation of
hostilities was signed in 2017, with civilians bearing the brunt of human rights
violations and displacements.
Concluding its mission to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, the
Commission underscored that South Sudan’s justice and accountability vacuum
continues to fuel political intransigence, impunity, conflict and corruption. The latest
political fracture at the centre has emboldened armed groups, triggered renewed
conflicts, and displaced thousands. As highlighted in the Commission’s recent report
— Plundering a Nation: How rampant corruption unleashed a human rights crisis in
South Sudan — grand corruption and systematic diversion of public resources remain
a key driver of conflict, depriving South Sudanese of their most basic rights.
“The ongoing political crisis, increasing fighting, and unchecked, systemic corruption
are all symptoms of the failure of leadership and consensus in implementing the
commitments of the peace agreement and political transition,” said Commissioner
Barney Afako, who led the Mission to the AU.
“Unless there is immediate, sustained
and coordinated political engagement by the region, South Sudan risks sliding back
into full-scale conflict with unimaginable human rights consequences for its people
and the wider region. South Sudanese are looking to the African Union and the region
to rescue them from a preventable fate.”
The Commission also engaged African Union officials, emphasizing the need for
urgency in establishing the transitional justice mechanisms reaffirmed in Chapter V
of the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan,
notably the Hybrid Court. More than a decade after the conflict broke out in December
2013, South Sudanese victims still await credible justice measures and reparations
for the serious violations and crimes they have endured. Despite repeated calls by
the AU Peace and Security Council in March and June 2025, for the Government of
South Sudan to work with the AU on developing guidelines and modalities for the
establishment of the Hybrid Court, no tangible progress has been made.
“More than ever, justice is essential for South Sudan,” said Yasmin Sooka, Chair of
the Commission. “The promises made to victims years ago remain unmet. The Hybrid
Court must move from paper to concrete action — the African Union has the mandate
and the moral responsibility to ensure holistic transitional justice for South Sudan in
line with its Transitional Justice Policy. A Hybrid Court that delivers accountability for
past crimes — while at the same time strengthening South Sudan’s own justice
institutions based on complementarity— can leave a transformative legacy,
strengthening cohesion, the rule of law and human rights in the country.”
Renewed armed clashes have forced thousands of South Sudanese to flee once more.
In 2025 alone, an estimated 300,000 South Sudanese fled the country, largely due
to the increasing conflict: with 148,000 new arrivals into Sudan; 50,000 to Ethiopia;
50,000 to Uganda; 30,000 to the Democratic Republic of Congo; and 25,000 to
Kenya. Their protection and survival continue to fall upon the region, which now hosts
more than 2.5 million South Sudanese refugees. South Sudan is also grappling with
an internally displaced population of 2 million, while hosting an additional 560,000
refugees fleeing from the war in Sudan. Women remain disproportionately affected,
bearing the greatest burdens and risks of forcible displacement.
“The mounting armed clashes, mass displacement and fracturing of a peace
agreement signed seven years ago demonstrate that South Sudan cannot rebuild
without stability and justice,” said Commissioner Carlos Castresana Fernández.
“Credible and independent mechanisms for justice and accountability are needed to
deter the repeated cycles of atrocities, break cycles of impunity and heal the wounds
of war. The AU and regional partners must act now — not only to prevent another
war, but to build the foundations of a just peace, based on the rule of law.”
In Addis Ababa, the Commission consulted with the AU Ad Hoc Committee on South
Sudan (C5 group), members of the AU Peace and Security Council, African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, diplomats, UN, IGAD, and senior AU
officials, including from the Office of the Legal Counsel. The Commission stressed the
need for intensified regional efforts to de-escalate and address political tensions and
surging armed contestation in South Sudan and called for sustained progress to
advance a holistic transitional justice agenda. It urged the Office of the Legal Counsel
to expedite the development of broad guidelines for the establishment of the Hybrid
Court to complement ongoing processes to set up the Commission for Truth,
Reconciliation and Healing and the Compensation and Reparation Authority.
With members of the African Union Peace and Security Council and the United Nations
Security Council set to meet in Addis Ababa later this week for their annual joint
seminar and consultative session, the Commission urged both Councils to take
decisive and coordinated action to address South Sudan’s escalating crisis. The
Commission called on them to place justice and accountability — including the prompt
establishment of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan — at the centre of their
deliberations, recognising that impunity and corruption remain the principal obstacles
to peace, stability and human rights in South Sudan.
The Commission underlined that only an inclusive and credible political transition,
supported by the AU, IGAD, the United Nations, and guarantors of the peace
agreement, working in tandem with the international community, can prevent further
deterioration and violations. It urged sustained and focused diplomatic engagement
to ensure that all actors, including armed and political groups currently outside the
peace framework, are brought into a consensus-based process committed to peace
and human rights.
“The crisis unfolding in South Sudan is the result of deliberate choices made by its
leaders to put their interests above those of their people”, said Commissioner Sooka.
“The region and the international community must now prevail upon South Sudan’s
leaders to make a different choice — one that puts their people first.”
ENDS.
Background: The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan is an independent
body mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council. First established in
March 2016, its mandate has been renewed annually since. The commissioners were
appointed by the President of the UN Human Rights Council; they are not UN staff
and do not receive a salary for their work as Commissioners. They are supported by
a Secretariat based in Juba, South Sudan.
More information about the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan can be
found here. Follow the Commission on X (formerly Twitter) here, on Facebook here,
and on YouTube here.
For media queries, please contact: In Juba: Rajeev PS, Public Information
Officer/Media Adviser, [email protected] / +211912174078;
in Geneva: Todd Pitman, Media Adviser, [email protected] / +41766911761
