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South Sudan will hold elections on December 22, its electoral commission promised on Monday, after years of repeated delays and despite an increasingly dire security situation.
International observers have warned of a return to full-blown conflict as government forces under President Salva Kiir battle groups loosely aligned with jailed opposition leader Riek Machar.
A 2018 peace agreement ended the last civil war between Kiir and Machar but it has largely collapsed, and the country remains mired in deep poverty and extreme levels of corruption and violence.
Under the peace process, elections were supposed to be held in 2022 but were delayed to 2024 and again to this year.
The National Election Commission (NEC) confirmed that polls would take place on December 22.
However, chairperson Abednego Akok Kacuol cautioned that several conditions of the peace deal required for elections to proceed were still not in place.
The commission has only been given $21 million of a proposed election budget of $250 million, he said, and security remained a problem.
“There are many challenges facing the commission,” he said, urging the government “to provide all basic needs”.
International patience over the endless delays has worn thin.
Should they go ahead, the polls will be the first since South Sudan won independence in 2011.
