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.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).