Addis Ababa (Somalia Today) – The African Union has appointed former Somali prime minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali as its new special envoy to South Sudan, tasking him with reviving a stalled peace agreement in the world’s youngest nation.
Ali’s appointment comes at a critical time, as key parts of a 2018 peace deal remain unimplemented. The country is also grappling with the consequences of delaying its first-ever presidential elections, initially scheduled for December 2024, to late 2026.
In a statement released Monday, AU Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said he was confident Ali’s “wealth of diplomatic and leadership experience will contribute significantly” to advancing dialogue.
The political stalemate has exacerbated a dire humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations estimating that over nine million people require aid in 2025 due to conflict and displacement.
The Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) was intended to end a five-year civil war that erupted just two years after independence in 2011.
The conflict killed an estimated 400,000 people. According to international observers, the failure to implement key security and governance reforms remains the primary obstacle to lasting peace.
A stalled agreement
While the 2018 agreement paused most heavy fighting between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, its core provisions have languished. The most critical unmet requirement is the unification of their rival forces into a professional national army, a process plagued by mistrust and funding shortages.
Beyond security, the deal mandated the creation of transitional justice bodies, including a Hybrid Court to prosecute war crimes. Rights groups say progress on this front has been virtually non-existent, denying justice to millions of victims. South Sudan’s leaders have also repeatedly missed deadlines to draft a new permanent constitution.
The delays have drawn sharp criticism from international partners. The Troika of nations that sponsored South Sudan’s independence — the United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway — has repeatedly urged the country’s leaders to demonstrate political will and allocate funding for the implementation of the agreement.
A spokesperson for the South Sudanese government did not immediately respond to emailed questions sent at 10:00 local time regarding the implementation timeline.
Navigating division
Ali, a US-educated economist also known as “Gaas,” served as Prime Minister of Somalia from June 2011 to October 2012 and later as President of the semi-autonomous state of Puntland from 2014 to 2019.
During his tenure as Somali prime minister, Ali oversaw the adoption of a provisional constitution, a key step in that country’s fragile state-building process. The African Union likely views this experience as directly relevant to South Sudan’s own delayed constitutional review.
In accepting the post, Ali reaffirmed his commitment to work “impartially and constructively with all South Sudanese stakeholders and partners.”
He inherits a file marked by deep-seated mistrust between the leading political actors who have vied for control of the oil-rich country for over a decade.
His immediate challenge will be to secure a breakthrough on unifying the armed forces, a step international partners consider essential for holding credible elections and preventing a return to large-scale conflict.
