Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan has warned that as the country approaches national elections, multiple risk factors for atrocity crimes—such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing—are converging. The Commission stated that the window to prevent a recurrence of the severe atrocities and displacement seen between 2013 and 2018 is closing but remains open.
This warning follows renewed armed conflict in regions including Upper Nile, Jonglei, Unity, Western, and Central Equatoria states. Between August 2025 and January 2026, 407 ceasefire violations were confirmed, with clashes resulting in civilian casualties.
According to the Commission, South Sudan faces one of its most dangerous moments since independence. It emphasized that holding elections without essential safeguards risks worsening existing conflicts and increasing the likelihood of atrocity crimes.
The 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) remains mostly unimplemented. Almost half of its key provisions, including the unification of security forces, have yet to be fulfilled.
The Commission noted that South Sudan currently experiences a deteriorating political, security, humanitarian, and human rights environment marked by renewed political division and conflict-related abuses. The panel includes human rights and international law experts Yasmin Sooka, Barney Afako, and Carlos Castresana Fernández, who serve without remuneration and report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The Commission further highlighted that most of the eight warning signs identified in the UN Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes are present and intensifying in South Sudan, including renewed armed conflict, weakened institutions, entrenched impunity, exclusionary governance, corruption, and shrinking civic space.